Weekly Reader: House of Silence by Sarah Barthel; A Fascinating Historical Fiction About Life in A Mental Hospital With Mary Todd Lincloln

Weekly Reader: House of Silence by Sarah Barthel; A Fascinating Historical Fiction About Life in a Mental Hospital With Mary Todd Lincoln

By Julie Sara Porter,

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It's hard for people who aren't mentally ill to imagine what life is like for those who are. They probably can't picture a life where emotions are so largely felt that the person is held captive by their sadness or their anger. They can't imagine a world in which a person is ruled by obsessions, paranoid thoughts, or elaborate delusions and the mind will do anything to protect those delusions.

 Above all someone who isn't mentally ill can't imagine wanting to have that illness. They can't imagine that someone's so-called normal life is so awful that they have to retreat into mental illness to escape. This circumstance is faced by Isabelle Larkin, the troubled protagonist of  Sarah Barthel's poignant and dark book, House of Silence.

Isabelle is a socialite in late 19th century Illinois who is looking forward to her upcoming wedding to Gregory Gallagher, a handsome, charming, social climbing businessman. There are hints that Isabelle is something of a rebel, by having a fondness for reading books about independent women like Jane Eyre and encouraging her best friend to marry the man she loves even though he is considered unsuitable. But her rebellious nature is subdued and she looks forward to her wedding to Gregory even though she doesn't know very much about him and can't truly say whether she loves him.

Isabelle’s life changes instantly when she witnesses her future fiance commit a violent crime. She goes from princess to pariah when she accuses Gregory of the crime.

He not only denies it but is so skillful in charm and deception, that he gets everyone to believe him, including Isabelle's snobbish mother.

Isabelle's doctor thinks that she was attacked by someone else and Gregory rescued her. Isabelle's mother won't allow the truth of Gregory's crime interfere with Isabelle's chance for an advantageous marriage.

When her mother and Gregory wish to proceed with the wedding despite Isabelle's protests, Isabelle realizes that the only way out is to feign insanity. She refuses to speak, so her mother has her declared mentally ill and has her institutionalized in Bellevue Sanitarium for Women.

Isabelle's time in Bellevue is the most interesting part of the book. She is monitored by various medical staff and doctors, one of whom she becomes attracted to considering him a better more understanding alternative to Gregory's manipulations and violent temper.

Isabelle also gets to know the other female patients such as Marilla who suffers from eating disorders and who runs back to her husband every chance she gets.

The Bellevue milieu comes alive as a place that chokes the lively vibrant women inside. While none of the employees are cruel and are genuinely trying to help them, these women are treated as outcasts and freaks by family members who would rather put them away than help them.

Besides Isabelle, the other stand-out of Bellevue's patients is a very familiar name: Mary Todd Lincoln. As many history buffs know, the former First Lady had various mental health disorders such as depression and bipolar throughout her life. Her condition worsened after the death of her young son, Willie in the White House and she was frequently institutionalized after her husband's assassination.

Mary Todd Lincoln is written as a woman with severe emotional distress but is also seen as a woman who can function, despite the opinion from others particularly her son, Robert who wants to keep her institutionalized.

Isabelle and Mary’s friendship is moving as they both fill a void in each other's life: Isabelle finds an understanding mother-figure who won't betray her to a violent fiancée.Mary finds a daughter that she never had who supports her rather than putting her away and refusing to deal with her.

Their friendship is beautifully written and that's why one passage where Isabelle betrays Mary by feigning insanity in front of Robert with only minor repercussions later is hollow and out-of-character from how they are written throughout the rest of the book.

While Barthel develops Mary well, she wisely keeps her as a supporting character, something Barthel acknowledged in her Author’s Note. This is Isabelle's book all the way and she is a commendable lead particularly in the Sanitarium when despite being selectively mute makes her voice heard and in the end when she confronts Gregory for his deception and cruelty.

Weekly Reader: It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini; An Understanding And Always Relatable Book About Mental Illness

Weekly Reader: It's Kind Of A  Funny Story by Ned Vizzini; An Understanding, At Times Funny, But Always Relatable Book About Mental Illness

By Julie Sara Porter,

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It's Kind of a Funny Story is one of those books that I find spookily relatable. It hits me the way books do when you see your life told in someone else's words.

Though I am miles apart from Ned Vizzini's protagonist, Craig Gilner in age, gender, income, and lifestyle I can see myself in him because both of us have depression and anxiety. Many of the examples that occur throughout Craig's narrative are uncomfortably familiar not only to me but to anyone else with mental illness.

Craig’s depression and anxiety are ways of coping with intense pressure from school. He is brilliant but doesn't feel excited about anything he is learning. He can't find any interest in any school activities or happiness in any activities at all.

The one work he enjoyed was making maps as a child, but he destroyed them when people told him that he could never be a map maker because “everywhere has been mapped.” He only likes to play the PlayStation and get high with his friends.

Those of us with mental illness can understand those times when nothing excites us and we just go through the motions. We can also understand when we take interest in something and how others’ or our own perceptions cloud even that interest.

The pressure increases when Craig gets accepted to a prestigious Manhattan academy. While he considers the acceptance a victory, he is constantly filled with anxiety and worry with each test and assignment. He becomes obsessed with worrying about graduating, getting accepted to college, and getting a job.

People with anxiety and depression keep fearing the worst and worry that one failure or disappointment is going to lead to more. (Craig's anxieties are manifested as a drill sergeant in his head that keeps pushing Craig forward.) It's hard for us to find even slight happiness in achievements because we are always second guessing our decisions and imaging the worst.

The book has some interesting touches that aren't often found in other books on mental illness. While Craig is diagnosed with depression and prescribed Zoloft fairly early on, during an upswing he believes he is completely recovered and stops taking it only to result in worse mood swings afterward.

Many people who are mentally ill often go through brief periods of extreme productivity and experience happy giddy feelings usually because of positive external moments. Sometimes the slightest disappointment is enough to bring the euphoria down and the depression and anxiety returns sometimes worse than before.

While Craig has suicidal thoughts, Vizzini doesn't make him actually attempt the act. Instead after a night of calling the Suicide Prevention Hotline, Craig decides to walk  two blocks to the psychiatric ward and voluntarily commit himself.

There are many who aren't mentally ill that believe if a person isn't a violent threat to others or themselves, then they really don't have a mental illness. Some throw out terms like “drama queen”, or “first world problem” as if to dismiss those feelings and the person having them. Vizzini's writing shows that depression and anxiety come in all forms and sometimes the moment when someone realizes that they need help can be just as individualistic as the symptoms preceding it.

When Craig is institutionalized in the adult section of the psychiatric ward (the teen ward is being renovated), he bonds with the other patients, many of whom are just as troubled as he is. There is Muqtada, Craig's roommate who is so agoraphobic that he won't leave their room, Armelio, who believes he is the President of the World (or the Ward anyway), and Noelle, a potential love interest for Craig who has a history of self-mutilation.

Craig also receives help from his therapist, Dr. Minerva and Nurse Monica, medical professionals who are truly committed to helping pull the patients through their hospitalization.

Craig learns to sort out his anxieties and fears and to minimize them in his life. (The drill sergeant in Craig's head even becomes encouraging towards his recovery.) Craig also reignites his love for map making turning his maps into works of art to be displayed in the ward. He also begins to look forward to his release where he will leave his high-pressured academy and begin art school. While Vizzini's book shows there is no one specific path to recovery from mental illness, one thing that helps is to find a goal to achieve and possibilities for a life outside of the illness.

Like other great books about mental illness, such as Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, It's Kind of a Funny Story humanizes the illness by giving us an understandable character to go through it. Those who have been there can relate. I know I do.

Weekly Reader: The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton: A Sweet Somewhat Typical Southern Tale About Coming Home

Weekly Reader: The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton; A Sweet Somewhat Typical Southern Tale About Coming Home

By Julie Sara Porter,

Bookworm Reviews

The Hideaway is not big on plot or suspense. It's a paint-by-numbers family story long on Southern gentility and sweetness. However it is a sweet story with two strong female protagonists and carries the theme of coming home.

Sara Jenkins is a modern New Orleans businesswoman with an interest in the past. She owns an antique shop and buys and restores old furniture. She thinks that she is living a fulfilled life until she hears her grandmother Mags died.

Mags reared Sara after the death of Sara’s parents. The two lived in Sweet Bay, Alabama one of those sweet Southern small towns that seem to exist in these type of books. The type of town where everyone is eccentric but good-natured and welcomes visitors with open arms. In Sweet Bay, Mags owned The Hideaway, a boarding house so welcoming that some visitors arrived in the ‘60’s and stayed for life.

 While Sara loved her grandmother and the Hideaway, she went through the typical teen angst and embarrassment towards Mags’ upfront sassiness and her overalls and bird’s nest hats. Upon adulthood, Sara fled for New Orleans and an upwardly mobile life until Mags’ death calls Sara back to Sweet Bay and she inherits the Hideaway according to her grandmother's will.

The Hideaway is actually two stories in one. Sara’s subplot is a standard “former city dwellers acquaint  themselves with rural life, falls in love with a local, and fights the nasty developer who wants to buy the town from under them.” There isn't a thing in Sara’s plot that hasn't appeared many times before in other books and movies. Sara is an interesting character as she goes through these regular plot angles. Her passages with romantic lead, Crawford are adorable and she bonds really well with the residents of the Hideaway. Even her moments with the nasty developer, Sammy Grosvenor aren't as bad as they could be. He turns out to be a somewhat decent guy who is able to compromise with the locals. The modern day chapters are filled with so much sugar and sweetness that the Reader will either give an adorable sigh or a nauseous gulp.

The real meat to the book belongs to Mags. As Sara rebuilds the Hideaway, she finds photographs of her grandmother as a young woman as well as mementos and pictures of a handsome young man who is definitely not her grandfather.

 Alternating with Sara’s chapters are flashbacks of Mags’ life. She recounts her life as the daughter of a wealthy prominent family and married to a rich businessman. She would have lived a life in high society until her husband left her for another woman. Rather than remaining married and ignoring her husband's affairs like her parents want, Mags skips town and stumbles upon the Hideaway by accident.

Mags is a fun bright spot in what would otherwise be a predictable book. She makes her subplot more memorable than Sara’s plot. She rebels against her parents when they urge her to return to her husband and vows to create her own life in Sweet Bay.

 When she arrives in Sweet Bay, Mags is instantly attracted to the boarding house and it's eccentric residents particularly the beatniks who have made it their new home. She also falls in love with William, a carpenter. The transformation that changes Mags from a frothy socialite to a strong-willed independent woman makes for great reading.

The Hideaway has a strong theme of home. This is emphasized by the character's feelings towards the Hideaway. They, especially Sara and Mags, feel an instant connection and belonging to the place. It is easy to see why they work so hard to make the Hideaway a home. The book is predictable but it conveys a sense of belonging that Mags and Sara give to each other, everyone around them, and the Reader.

Weekly Reader: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; A Brilliant Thriller About The Dissolution of A Marriage

Weekly Reader: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: A Brilliant Thriller About The Dissolution of A Marriage
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I can not review this book without revealing the plot so I won't even try to avoid the plot. I will just reiterate that this review contains MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

Gone Girl is one of those books that is a constant match between opposing forces. They scheme and strive to best each other like a chess match between arch enemies. However, far from an Avengers movie or Jason Bourne novel where the protagonists take on villains and enemy spies, the antagonists are a husband and wife.

Nick and Amy Elliot Dunne had a passionate romantic whirlwind marriage. They lived successful lives in Manhattan where Nick was a magazine journalist and Amy was a personality quiz writer who also lived off her fame as the inspiration for her parent's series of YA novels, Amazing Amy. They celebrated their anniversary with elaborate gifts and treasure hunts leading to the location of gifts. They appeared happy and in love...to everyone but Nick and Amy.

The cracks in their marriage begin to show when the recession began and the Internet made their jobs redundant. Also the failing health of Nick's parents sent the couple packing to Nick's childhood home of North Carthage, Missouri. The two then lived a marriage marked by deceit, dull complacency, and snide backhanded compliments until one day Amy turns up missing.

Gillian Flynn brilliantly used the points of view from both Nick and Amy in alternating chapters  wher Nick says one thing that Amy contradicts and vice versa. Nick recalls their first date in which he found his future bride beautiful, captivating, and charming while Amy laughs that he fell for the persona that she dubbed "The Cool Girl."

The alternating view points also work by shifting the Reader's sympathies. Flynn skillfully withholds information so we never know the full story until we receive it. One minute we feel sorry for the couple and the next they fill us with loathing.

Nick begins the book as a grief-stricken husband who is trying to find his wife and challenges  accusations that he murdered Amy. Then the Reader learns he has a mistress and is not as overly upset about his wife's disappearance as he let on.

Amy's narration is even more artful and sophisticated. Her early chapters are diary entries that show an intelligent sardonic woman who is naive, bored, and fearful of her husband's emotional nature. Then later chapters reveal that the diary was planted by a more cold-blooded calculating Amy who enjoys putting on her husband and the Reader.

Gone Girl reads like one of those news events like a celebrity divorce or a public trial. Our sympathies shift from one side as we back one person. Then we hear more evidence and we shift back to the other side. Flynn captures that confusion rather well by making both her narrators unreliable.

Even after Nick and Amy are reunited, they still live a life of forced happiness and awareness of the depths of their deception. Their hatred for each other will continue until it will one day explode. What was feared will be true as Nick and Amy lie in wait for a murder that will someday happen.

Classics Corner: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; A Fantastic Magical Journey With Deep Meaning

Classics Corner: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; A Fantastic Magical Journey With Deep Meaning

By Julie Sara Porter,

Bookworm Reviews

The Phantom Tollbooth is a classic Juvenile novel in the tradition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or The Chronicles of Narnia. On the surface, it’s an imaginative story about a boy who goes to a fantasy world, meets unusual creatures, goes on a quest to save the world, and is declared a hero. What makes The Phantom Tollbooth a classic along the lines of Alice is the depth that the journey takes. The Phantom Tollbooth is a magical journey that is really an allegory about the importance of learning.

The protagonist, Milo, is a young boy who the narrator tells us “doesn't know what to do with himself not just sometimes but always.” He can't get excited about anything. His toys and books bore him. He finds his school lessons unimportant. He isn't satisfied when he goes places. He is one unhappy young boy and would be miserable for the rest of his life if he didn't find a mysterious tollbooth that appears in his room with instructions on how to use it.

Milo drives his small electric car through the tollbooth and finds himself on the road to Dictionopolis, a fantasy kingdom with residents that live for words and letters. Dictionopolis’ ruler King Azaz is in constant conflict with his brother, The Mathemagician, the ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Digitopolis, whose residents live for numbers. Milo learns that Azaz and the Mathemagician will continue to war with each other until someone goes to the Castle of Air and rescues the Princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason who bring balance to the world. Naturally Milo is the lucky volunteer for the quest.

As seen by the summary alone, the Phantom Tollbooth is a buffet of symbolism and verbal byplay. Only a truly gifted writer could create characters named Rhyme and Reason (as in the old saying “There is no rhyme or reason.”) with a straight face. Naturally the two kingdom's rulership of words and numbers illustrate the basics of learning. (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.)

The book is filled with clever plays on words such as a place called Conclusions (which naturally can only be reached by Jumping to it.) When Milo says that he got in a bad situation because “he wasn't thinking.”

Another character tells him the only way out is to start thinking which pulls Milo out of his trouble.

The visits to Dictionopolis and Digitopolis are rich in passages which take word and number concepts literally. Milo goes to a word market where Dictionopolis residents actually eat their words and each letter has a different taste. (C is crunchy and chocolate, while I is very cold, and so on.) The Spelling Bee is an adorable insect that spells words. The Whether Man is a character who wonders whether there will be weather.

Meanwhile, at Digitopolis there is a figure called the Dodecahedron with ten faces and a different emotion for each face. A boy is the .58 of his average family of mother, father, and 2.58 children and looks like it. (He has only half a body.). There are roads to Infinity in which unwary travelers keep going without stopping.

The clever characters and situations aren't just found in the two kingdoms. They are sprinkled throughout the book. Milo is aided on his journey by Tock, a stern but lovable watchdog that has a timepiece on his back and the Humbug, a pompous braggart who occasionally is able to talk himself and his friends out of a bad situation.

 Milo and his friends also meet a conductor who conducts colors each morning and night (his sunsets and his sunrises are particularly gorgeous) and the Sound Keeper, who collects every beautiful sound in the world. With each character and situation, Milo learns to appreciate the beauty of words, color, sounds, and numbers finding happiness that he took for granted in the real world.

Of course no fantasy would be complete without its antagonists and these are found within the minds of the character. (and no doubt the Reader.) Early in the book, Milo encounters the Doldrums, lethargic creatures that have busy days of lazing about, dawdling and dreaming,and putting off until tomorrow. The Doldrums echo Milo’s earlier depression and are warnings for what he could have become if he hadn't taken the journey through the Tollbooth.

On their way to rescue Rhyme and Reason, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug have to journey through the aptly named Forest of Ignorance and encounter several demons that like the Doldrums symbolize  psychological traps people fall into. There's the Terrible Trivium who makes Milo and his friends do mindless unnecessary tasks to distract them from their journey. The Demon of Insincerity claims to be a large terrifying creature but is really a small coward. A giant would rather conform to the thoughts and appearance of others so he could blend in rather than be his own individual.
 It is easy to see how the characters and the Readers can fall into the traps in the Forest of Ignorance. Because the demons are ones that we fall into every day, it becomes more meaningful to read about Milo and his friends get out of them and rescue Rhyme and Reason.

While this book was written for children, adults would certainly enjoy it for the clever word play, the references to words and numbers, the allegorical characters but also for the journey which shows the best way out of dull complacency or complete ignorance is learning and appreciating what we learn.