By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: This is the second book in a row, after Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor, in which institutional care is an important focus. Delusions of Madness was a dark disturbing Historical Fiction about the institutional abuse found in a 19th century mental asylum and the stranglehold of the patriarchy that controls it.
We Spread by Iain Reid, the second book, focuses on Senior care in modern day. The setting and plot aren't the only things that are different about it. Where Delusions of Madness is more direct and honest about the mistreatment suffered by the patients, We Spread is more hidden, subtle, and delicate with how Senior care is portrayed. It is surrounded with potential metaphor, allegory, and open ended questions that are left for interpretation.
Penny, a Surrealist painter, has just lost her partner who passed away. After an incident where she collapses, her landlord authorizes her commitment to a long term care residence which both he and the center’s staff insist was arranged by her partner. She doesn't recall such a conversation and is very reluctant to go. However the three other residents, Pete,Ruth, Hilbert, and the only two staff members, Jack and Shelly, seem very nice and she's well taken care of so maybe it will work out.
That is before strange things start happening. She and other residents start to forget things that they always used to remember. There are moments of missing time where they may have slept for several hours or days due to medication. Some of the residents’ personalities are different. Objects keep appearing and disappearing. There are whispered conversations and warnings about the residence’s founder, Shelley whose behavior is utterly bizarre.
Six Cedars seems like a pleasant setting that perhaps might be just a bit too pleasant. Penny's first description of the residence is a stone house surrounded by trees. It's big, old, plain, and the only sounds are songbirds and natural silence. The foyer is clean and immaculate with fresh roses, two leather chairs, and the sound of a violin coming from one of the rooms.
Penny's room has a queen bed, a thick duvet, a recliner chair, lamp, dresser, desk, and a grand window facing the forest. There are common rooms, a hair salon, a dining room, and even though residents are not permitted to go outside alone, they can be accompanied plus every room has a scenic natural view.
It's safe, comfortable, welcoming, clean, sterile with no clutter, dust, or personal items. It's the kind of place that relaxes one because they don't have to think about duties, responsibilities, stuff, mental clutter.
Penny can get her needs met and everyday she sees new brushes, paint, and other supplies encouraging her process that appear as if by magic. Who wouldn't want to live in such a nice, comfortable, quiet place that allows you to create to your heart's content?
Penny bonds with the other residents who have their own interests as much as Penny has with her art. Pete was a concert violinist and plays in his room. Ruth is a polyglot and often peppers her conversations with French phrases. Hilbert is a mathematician and often speaks in complex puzzles and equations. Each one has a special means of communication and self-expression and uses it to create a shared language of words, music, numbers, and pictures among them.
Though the staff is small, they are also memorable. Shelley is a beautiful woman who seems to genuinely want to give the residents the proper care that they need and allow their minds to flourish and grow. She also has an interest in biology so often speaks in terms of environment, plant cycles, and growth. Jack is probably the least developed of the main characters, but he alternates between being a helpful guide and a fountain of frantic exposition especially when the weird things start happening.
The sinister happenings don't occur until halfway through the book so the Readers fall into the same subtle complacency and detachment that Penny first does. Things are strange here but this place is too nice. Everything is so routine. You don't have to think about the strange things or the world outside. Everyone here will take care of you. Now lie down and relax. Oh you can't remember your partner's name whom you have been with for decades? Well perhaps that's a sign of dementia. We'll have a doctor look you over in the morning. Now take this drug, lie down, and sleep for a couple of days.
It works because it puts the residents in a stagnant comfortable routine. They can't and won't question anything because there doesn't seem to be anything to question. There's just a general unease when memories become fragmented, items are missing, and Penny can't recall details like whether or not she and her partner ever did talk about this place or their future end of life plans. When Penny starts questioning them, she can't get anyone to act in meaningful ways beyond talking. She isn't sure if she wants to either.
What is particularly compelling about this set up is because it is so subtle it remains uncertain if anything sinister really is happening. After all, absent mindedness and forgetting details are signs of dementia. The languid tired feelings could just be that their minds are becoming numb from routine and the appearing art supplies and other things could be gifts from Jack and Shelly to keep their minds active.
Even some of the stranger events like odd discoloration on one characters' skin, Jack's frantic late night warnings, and a crucial overheard conversation could just be nightmares or delusions from Penny since she is the only person who experiences them.
A metaphor that is spread throughout is Penny's connection to art. She laments that when she was with her partner, some of her more complex Surrealist paintings were unfinished while he often flourished creatively.
Since she has all the time in the world in Six Cedars, she can finally work on them. But she is always finding something incorrect, flawed, or wrong with them so she has to start all over again. It's almost like she doesn't want to finish them.
This conflict could be symbolic of her feelings towards Six Cedars. She is curious but uncertain. She thinks that her life might be in danger or she's paranoid and imagining it. She wants to find out but doesn't want to. Because finishing the painting is like finishing a story. If she asks questions and gets answers that she doesn't want to hear, then her story is finished. She is moving closer to the edge of her life and while she sees the view, she is afraid of jumping off. Her life is in her art and now her art and life are here in Six Cedars. Is she really ready to put her signature on the painting and read the final end page?
