by Clare Dudman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2005
Dudman’s artistry matches her historic research, and the combination is very rich.
A 19th-century German doctor gropes toward humane treatment of the mentally ill in a poignant story based on a real physician.
Again using her keen intelligence and deftly economical writing to illustrate an important moment in the history of science, the British Dudman, whose 2004 One Day The Ice Will Reveal Its Dead presented the birth of plate tectonic theory, creates a life for the pioneering psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann. Hoffmann has a certain literary notoriety for Struwwelpeter or Shockheaded Peter, his ghastly but magnetic collection of didactic verses for children. Struwwelpeter, originally illustrated by Hoffmann himself, was hugely popular for decades and remains available (Google it; it’s not to be missed), but Dudman’s interest is in Hoffmann’s early efforts to break away from the awful remedies that had been used for centuries to treat the insane, epileptic, retarded and otherwise inconvenient souls in this world. Trained in Heidelberg, Hoffmann worked his way into management of the insane asylum in Frankfurt, where Dudman presents him with Hannah Meyer, a young woman from the Jewish ghetto whose mother hopes Hoffmann can help her recover from a mental breakdown. Hannah’s bleak and confused thoughts are interwoven with Hoffmann’s early efforts, a structure that makes for slow going at first. As Hannah’s broken-hearted history is gradually revealed, so are the stories and states of the inmates and staff of the asylum. Hoffmann’s own life is nearly as bleak as his patients’ own lives. His grasping wife Therese has banished her oldest son, Heinrich’s favorite, to boarding school so that she won’t have to deal with his disturbing adolescence. After conventional and dreadful treatments such as galvanic shock and ice water dunkings fail to bring Hannah back, Hoffmann simply talks to her about his own troubles until she is engaged and begins to return from her state of despair.
Dudman’s artistry matches her historic research, and the combination is very rich.Pub Date: July 21, 2005
ISBN: 0-670-03424-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
Share your opinion of this book
More by Clare Dudman
BOOK REVIEW
by Clare Dudman
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Share your opinion of this book
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
Share your opinion of this book
More by J.D. Salinger
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.