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| Source: goodreads.com |
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell, has been sitting on my shelf since 2008. Hence, why it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list for this year. At 245 pages, it was a quick read too.
I'm not going to say this is the best book ever, but it was a good story and I wanted to keep reading all the way through. It centers around the history of two sisters, Kitty and Esme Lennox, who grow up in a time period where women are never more than housewives and mental illness (and what it's not) is not really understood.
Iris, the only remaining Lennox relative to the sisters, doesn't know much about her family's history and what she does know, she soon finds out is all lies. The story definitely keeps you moving, as the third person narration switches between Iris, Kitty and Esme of the past, and Kitty and Esme of the present. To complicate matters of piecing the history/story together, Esme has been locked away for sixty-one years and Kitty has Alzheimer's. The question is, how does someone exist in one place for sixty-one years without her one and only remaining relative knowing she existed?
There's not much to say without ruining the piecing together of the story, but if you're looking for a quick story to entertain you, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will do the trick.
The history of "treating" mental illness is astounding. It unnerves me and makes me sick to read about in books such as this. Any such books you've read?
Sounds interesting. I read Up From the Blue a while back which was about depression/mental illness. It was hard to read. But, I thought it was good.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of those things...you could explain it to a child, but they're not going to understand. And so misunderstanding forms between the adult and child involved, which is hard to resolve, even when child is an adult old enough to understand.
DeleteI think I've read a book once where I was quite shocked to learn how a woman with mental illness gets "treated' in the olden days. Not fun to read, but I can't remember the title now. I can't believe she was locked up for 61 years! sounds like an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the crazy things they get locked up for! Things we so easily treat and try to understand now.
DeleteI've never read anything by Maggie O'Farrell but have vowed to rectify that this summer. And the whole mental illness of this one appeals to me. Can't wait to get to it.
ReplyDeleteI've had this book on my shelf for eight years and have never seen anything else by her since...well nothing has crossed my path is what I mean. Does she have anything else you've heard of that sounds interesting?
DeleteI've done fairly extensive reading in the history of mental health treatment. Related/Not Related: I read 'The Three Christs of Ypsilanti' where researchers put together three paranoid schizophrenics who all believed they were Christ (in the 1950s) - I found it a little ethically unsettling.
ReplyDeleteWow - that would be a freaky read I'm sure. I try to keep in mind that they didn't know what we know now, so they did what they had to, but it still makes me mad. However, there are things we don't understand now and years from now people will look back and ask what the hell we were thinking.
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