Grace is put into the Briar Mental Institute
aged 11. The doctors told her family there was no hope for Grace’s future. On
her first day she meets another patient, Daniel, who brings out unforeseen life
in Grace. Emma Henderson takes us through the following years of Grace’s life
with refreshing honesty on mental illness - still a surprisingly taboo subject.
Grace barely speaks a
word as she has severe speech problems. For me, this makes Henderson’s
achievement of the compelling character all the more impressive, as she builds
it up by depicting how others see Grace – doctors, family, strangers – and
Grace’s own candid thoughts in the first person narrative. Grace notes
everything about life at the Briar, from mundane activities, to her relationship
with Daniel, to an account of sexual abuse at the hands of the dentist employed
there.
There’s something
quite Cuckoo’s Nest about the novel in some of the frank and honest sections of
dialogue and scenes narrating the subject of mental illness, but Henderson still
manages to keep her style and plot admirably original. It’s well thought out,
creating a complex web of responses and judgements – about the institution, the
friendship, and perhaps most of all, Grace’s parents. Henderson writes with
sensitivity, integrity and thought; and I finished the book with the satisfying
feeling of having learned things from it.
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