My Lobotomy

My Lobotomy by Howard Dully is an amazing memoir. It is the story that begins with a little boy whose mother dies and his father marries Lou, a wicked stepmother beyond words. She does not want to bother with this young step-son, and begins seeking doctors who will buy her story about what a disturbed child Howard is. She finds Dr. Walter Freeman, who is beginning to do lobotomy's on patients, and he eventually buys her story and agrees to give Howard a lobotomy for $200. The kicker is 1) he is not a surgeon, and 2) he performs the lobotomies with ice picks inserted through the eyes. Really gruesome.

From Barnes & Noble website:

In 1960, Howard Dully became a part of medical history. At the tender age of 12, he was lobotomized, making him the youngest of Dr. Walter Freeman's 10,000 patients on the receiving end of the transorbital operation. Freeman's procedure was not only barbaric (he inserted an ice pick three inches into each eye socket), it was perilous: Fifteen percent of his patients died. Forty years after Freeman effectively derailed his life, Dully set out to discover how he became a guinea pig for one of American medicine's worst crimes. An astonishing memoir of self-recovery.

Howard spends years in institutions,including jail, and becomes alcoholic. Finally settling into his 40's, he decides to try to learn more about what happened to him. However, by then, his step-mother, Lou, is dead, as is Dr. Freeman. The only other person alive who was involved in the decision was his father, and he is reluctant to talk about those times and his part in it, since he allowed the operation to take place. As he continues to research, Howard is put in touch with others who are also seeking answers about the procedure and how it affected either themselves or members of their family. He learns that Dr. Freeman's records are archived and is allowed access to them, and there he learns the whole story.

Howard's life and recovery is amazing and really reinforced for me how resilient the human spirit can be. He is an amazing man and I applaud his efforts in bringing this horrible period on mental health history to light.

The book was very interesting and well-written. I hesitate to say that I "enjoyed" it, because the story is so disturbing, but it was a good book, and I do recommend others to read it.

The Comforts of Madness

The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer won the 1988 Whitbread Award and is now out of print. I don't understand that. I found it to be an amazing book. It was only 120 pages, a quick read, but very thought-provoking for me. Understand that I do have a Masters in Clinical Psychology so this was right up my alley.

It is a novel about a man named Peter who "had not spoken a word in anyone's living memory". Eventually the story tells some of his early family life with his parents and sister. It seems pretty clear that no one ever really took notice of the oddities in the family or that Peter did not speak. But it pretty much leaves the imagination to figure out the story of his early years.

As he grows older, he continues to retreat into more silence, that is, letting his body deteriorate until he no longer has any muscles, is unable to stand, feed himself etc. However, the story is told by him, letting the reader in on his thoughts and observations. Very interesting.

His description of himself: "The stiff one, old clay-boots with his clay head and his old clay balls, a scarcely breathing hotchpotch of hair, skin and bone, who flexed not the smallest extremity, not even a toe, who lay all night like a corpse himself, who had not spoken a word in anyone's living memory-me...."

The story tells of some of the attempts that have been made to "help" him in his institutional life. He does not know if any of his family is still alive, until one day a woman comes who says that she is his sister. She talks to him for awhile (and is clearly really his sister) but when the visit ends, she tells that staff that she had been mistaken, that was not her long;lost brother, leaving Peter still alone in his mind and body.

I don't understand at all why this book is out of print. I was able to get my copy from Half.com. I very much recommend the book. Very interesting and thought-provoking, as I said. I found it fascinating!

Side-note: I couldn't find too much about the author. The back of the book states that "He was a staff nurse in a large psychiatric hospital in York, but is now devoting his full time to his writing." Remember, that this was written in 1988, so now 21 years later, I don't know what has become of him other than it looks like he did publish some other novels. Might be worth checking out.

Quit reading books I don't care about!

I have started 3 books already this month and have put them down and am not returning to them. Time is too precious to continue to read books that I don't care about. I began The Ventriloquist's Tale by Pauline Melville...just didn't care about it. Began Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer and realized that it was a young person's book, and again, just didn't care about it. Started A Mercy by Toni Morrison. It was good, but I realized that each time I picked it up, I couldn't figure out who was the narrator of that part and finally just gave up.

I have to get over this sense of feeling badly when I quit a book. There are just too many books out there that I really truly want to read. I don't need to spend my precious reading time on books I don't care about. I am trying to get better about this. It very rarely happens that I end up liking a book that I struggled through. It feels like a failure on my part when I give up on a book. I need to realize that it is a GOOD thing, a strength to quit when I first realize I don't care!

Song Yet Sung

I just today returned from a week at the beach (to horrible, rainy/snowy cold weather here at home, I might add). I took James McBride's 3rd novel, Song Yet Sung, with me to read and I did complete it. I liked it a lot. At times, I found it a little difficult to follow...there are lots of characters and much written about the Maryland Eastern Shore, but each character adds to the story. I wish that I had the time to thoroughly study each character because I think that there are probably lessons to be learned from each. I will definitely return to reading this book again at some point.

Here is the review from Publishers Weekly:

Escaped slaves, free blacks, slave-catchers and plantation owners weave a tangled web of intrigue and adventure in bestselling memoirist (The Color of Water) McBride's intricately constructed and impressive second novel, set in pre-Civil War Maryland. Liz Spocott, a beautiful young runaway slave, suffers a nasty head wound just before being nabbed by a posse of slave catchers. She falls into a coma, and, when she awakes, she can see the future-from the near-future to Martin Luther King to hip-hop-in her dreams. Liz's visions help her and her fellow slaves escape, but soon there are new dangers on her trail: Patty Cannon and her brutal gang of slave catchers, and a competing slave catcher, nicknamed "The Gimp," who has a surprising streak of morality. Liz has some friends, including an older woman who teaches her "The Code" that guides runaways; a handsome young slave; and a wild inhabitant of the woods and swamps. Kidnappings, gunfights and chases ensue as Liz drifts in and out of her visions, which serve as a thoughtful meditation on the nature of freedom and offer sharp social commentary on contemporary America. McBride hasn't lost his touch: he nails the horrors of slavery as well as he does the power of hope and redemption. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

I was quite interested in Liz, "The Gimp" and "the Woolman"...fascinating characters.

I was totally taken with Liz's references (both veiled and less-veiled) to her visions of Martin Luther King Jr. in the future. The book has also captured (or perhaps re-captured) my interest in learning more about "the Code". I always take it as an indication of a very good book if the book leaves me wanting to learn more about the subject. That usually means that the book has really caught my interest.

The book was dedicated to Moses Hogan. That even got my curiosity and this is what I found:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moses George Hogan (March 13, 1957 - February 11, 2003) was an African-American composer and arranger of choral music. He was best known for his very popular and accessible settings of spirituals. Hogan was a pianist, conductor and arranger of international renown. His works are highly celebrated and performed by high school, college, church, community, and professional choirs across the globe today. He died at the age of 45 of a brain tumour, and his survivors include his father and mother, a brother and four sisters. His interment was located at Mount Olivet Cemetery and Mausoleum.

As a funny side-note, before I left for vacation, I was going through my TBR pile (To Be Read pile) and found that I had bought 2 copies of this book. Apparently it had really caught my interest each time I went to the store!

The Kommandant's Girl

I finished reading the Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff a few days ago and just haven't even felt like it was worth blogging about. I did finish the book, but just kept thinking that it would get better, that something would happen, etc. Finally, while I was reading it, it occurred to me that I felt as if I were reading a Young Adult book. It just read quite simply and, for me, quite unrealistically.

Obviously, from the title, you probably have guessed that it was about a young girl during WW II. Emma was a Jewish girl in Poland who was taken from the Polish ghetto early in occupation and moved to her husband's cousin's home. She assumed a new identity as Anna. The cousin was an older lady, who was not Jewish and was willing to care for Emma, along with a small male child who had lost his parents. Emma's husband was off fighting in the Resistance, and her parents had remained in the ghetto. One night at a party she met the Kommandant and he was immediately taken with her and shortly after, asked her to be his assistant. So Emma/Anna began working in Nazi headquarters. Soon she was asked by the Resistance to begin to steal papers, etc for their use, which she agreed to do.

There are several incidents in the book where Emma/Anna either is caught or comes close to being caught. However these incidents are quickly and easily resolved, making the Germans to appear to be not very bright, along with being very forgiving people. Not what you picture a German Nazi Kommandant to be.

Of course, while there is something to be said for the fact that many of the Nazi German army soldiers and officers may have been kind, gentle people, I don't think that their being betrayed was easily looked over or forgiven.

I just found the book to be way too simplistic and unrealistic. I was very glad to be moving onto a new read!

Books: A Memoir

I just finished reading Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry. Interesting book. It was not at all what I expected. I guess that I thought it would be more about favorite books he has read, etc. Instead, it seemed to be about his career as a book seller/trader. Which was interesting, since I had never known that he was in the used book selling trade, nor have I ever read much about the trade business. Although, Lord knows, I have been in plenty of used book stores!

It was an interesting book, but I would think it would only be interesting to people who really love books themselves, not just love to read. It made me think about some of the bookstores that I have been to. The used bookstores that I have been most impressed with were in San Francisco. I believe that the ones I visited were in the Castro district and they were wonderful! This is going back almost 20 years ago. Wonderful big, old, comfortable stores that I could wander in for hours!

So anyway, back to the book. It was enjoyable, even if for only helping me recall my great used bookstore experiences!

As a side note, I have never read any of Larry McMurtry’s books, but I have read so much about Lonesome Dove that I may venture on into it soon. Does anyone have any opinions about which of his books to read?

The Likeness

I am not even sure where to begin reviewing this book...it was so good. It is the second novel of Tana French. I read the first one sometime ago and reviewed it here (In The Woods). The Likeness carried through with one of the main characters of In the Woods with Detective Cassie Maddox going undercover into a college group of 5, taking on the identify of Lexie Madison, one of the 5 who was found murdered. The other 4 of the group are suspects and so are told that Lexie was seriously injured and in a coma. When she returns to their home, she spends several weeks living as Lexie, attempting to learn who the murderer was.

Here is what the Barnes and Noble reviewer had to say about the book:

The Barnes & Noble Review

Tana French worked as an actress before she started writing, at age 33, and she inhabits her characters with such ease that one feels genuine regret that they aren't available to, say, grab a pint at the local pub while trading South Park quips and riffing on the kind of over-groomed women who never buy their round. Her debut novel, Into the Woods, was a police procedural about two cops earning their sea legs in the Dublin Murder Squad, but the relationship between Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, was so finely drawn that it could have just as well been simply about the difficulties of platonic friendships between men and women. And yet French deposited not one but two tantalizingly suspenseful mysteries at the core of the novel -- and then had the audacity to leave the most spectacular of the two unanswered at novel's end. What nerve it took, then, to begin The Likeness somewhere else entirely. While Rob narrated the first novel, the voice in this novel belongs solely to Cassie. She is lured back to undercover work when a body shows up that is her exact likeness. Her old boss, Frank, convinces her to impersonate the dead woman in her former life. Once there, however, Cassie becomes so charmed by her new life as a graduate student in literature that she nearly forgets her purpose is to find a killer. French meticulously builds suspense in the most natural, harrowing way -- her characters are so perfectly built that one feels capable of analyzing them and second-guessing them as one would do with friends. Cassie is so well articulated, in fact, that one can imagine a second mystery hovering like some phantom scrim that she is too close to see. If it's there, French is wise enough not to tip her hand; her books work most perfectly in the empty spaces between. --Amy Benfer

That's a good review. I was glad that this book did not leave any of the questions unanswered as her first book did. I am still waiting for a follow-up book to In the Woods!

Both books are outstanding reads...I highly recommend both. I can't even pick out which one I liked better. Ms. French has a great sense of mystery! I look forward to her next story!