Red Deer Readers' Reviews

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

2009-08-05T08:35:00.004+01:00

This month's book 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is on one hand a book about mental health treatment and on the other about the abuse of power.

There was a report written in the 60's (Rand Report I think) for the American government about the affect on humans if alien life made contact. The conclusion was that the effects would be devastating and therefore any contact should be hidden. The evidence for this was that any aliens contacting us would be more advanced and if you looked at, for example, Native Americans you can see the effects of a more advanced culture upon a less advanced one.

It is useful to relate this to the book. Is the Chief mad because his culture has been destroyed and devalued? In the book the Chief talks about his dealings with the dominant (not necessarily more advanced!) culture. In many ways he is treated as invisible and irrelevant.

How would he, with his hallucinations, have been treated by his culture? Would he have been labelled as mad or a visionary?

It was fascinating at the reading group to listen to people's personal experiences of mental health problems. Many people have relatives who have suffered from such illnesses and I think it is interesting that something which affects many of us (my Grandma was schizophrenic) is so rarely spoken of - except the portrayal of mad axe wielding maniacs in the newspapers.

One thing that is very disturbing in the book is the treatments they undergo. I know that some, such as ECT, have been seen to work for some people. These treatments are not introduced out of cruelty but a desire to help. The experience of them though can be very different. My father told me that his mother had ECT, back before they used any anesthetic, and afterwards the doctor were so happy she was cured. Dad said that in fact she just became quiet - so instead of laughing all day she just sat in her chair and rocked. He thought she was still having her hallucinations but now was too scared to express them incase she was electrocuted again. I remember her like that from when I was a child - a very still, very quiet woman - in her own mental prison.

One thing the book doesn't really deal with is how to treat people with severe mental illness. Many of the people in the book aren't really mentally ill at all. Many just have low self esteem, which McMurphy increases with his antics, and have entered the asylum to hide.

The book, whilst timeless in some ways, is very much a product of its time - the rascism and misogyny demonstrates that. I found I could accept it, in that context, but I understand why others found it grating.

Throughout history different cultures have approached madness in different ways. Are hallucinations messages from the Gods or a sign of a diseased brain? Whereas one village might be happy to have one eccentric a city finds it hard to cope with a 1000!

Personally I do think we need safe places people can go if life gets too much for them - and secure places they can go if they are a danger to themselves or others. The question is what we do with them when they are there. The aimless days they endured in the book demonstrate one option - there are many others.

It depends really what has caused the illness - whether it is organic or emotional. There's no point in counselling if the problem is an imbalance in chemicals! I have to say though when I worked in a mental health unit I never met anyone who'd had a good life - they had all suffered violence or abuse. My grandmother was regularly locked in a cupboard as a child for hours on end by her abusive mother.

Whenever we have a period of economic slowdown, like now, the NHS has to decide what to spends its money on. Mental health is rarely top of the agenda but as something that affects many people it should be!

As a child I was fascinated by history and used to be amazed that where I lived used to be forest in the past. I would walk down the road thinking that underneath the tarmac and pavement was soil full of seeds just waiting to spring back into life once we are gone.

I remembered this thought when I was reading this book. Humanity's spirit is always there just waiting for someone, like McMurphy, to release it. We are naturally optimistic, enthusiastic people (how else would we have explored so far and advanced so much) but we forget sometimes. The book reminds us.

More frightening than a hen party?

2009-07-19T18:00:00.001+01:00

Hen and Stag party capital, Newcastle upon Tyne didn’t know what had hit it when Red Deer Readers came to town in May.

Forgot I’d taken this.

Of Angleworms and Others

2009-07-08T22:49:00.001+01:00

Welcome back to the near death experience that is the Red Deer Readers’ Reviews blog. Here’s a last walk round the island, poking the moss back into place with my stick, leaving hanging the question as to whether this is my last time in this splendid isolation.

So, The Summer Book by Tove Jansson of Moomin fame…

I loved the tensile framework of this book despite a (very) few unsatisfactory chapters and a positively rancid foreword. And hearing what you lovely Red Deer Readers had to say about it served to deepen my appreciation, as ever. I am again awed by those that can write so well that they can leave so much unsaid, who have the generosity and faith to let their readers inhabit their work and world. It’s clear from this novel, that draws from her own and her family’s experiences, that Tove Jansson was such a writer.

The highlights for me included: the geriatric breaking and entering; the Enormous Plastic Sausage and the sherry-bearing Visitor. The first and last chapters, though, are sublime.

I wouldn’t class this as a perfect book but a very rewarding read which I have placed on my '”to keep” shelves.

PS I know we were all too polite to say last night but I’ll now admit to being rather disturbed by Pat’s mistakenly reviewing this book for the one actually on the list…

The Audacity of Hope

2009-02-03T22:08:00.004Z

Well.Am doing my bit to keep the blog alive but can't help feeling am just chatting to the void...

So. Good discussion tonight of The Audacity of Hope despite being a small select number due to the Arctic conditions that have settled on Sheffield today. Interesting array of thumbs.

Liked Barack's style-v articulate, flowing and lyrical and found his well balanced arguments reassuring from someone who now has the most powerful job in the world.Feel America in safer hands than it's been for the last 8 years

Am now going to rate the book (well, I think I am)

Hope someone else follows this!

Shakespeare

2008-11-06T11:09:00.005Z

Good meeting last night and lots of discussion for so flimsy a book!
Sorry had to dash off and hope arguments carried on over a pint
See, am blogging like a trouper now-you won't be able to shut me up
G
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The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

2008-10-16T18:36:00.003+01:00

It can be rather nerve racking when you've suggested a book and you wait for other people's comments. As you look around the room you're never too sure who will rate it and who will slate it. I suggested this book after being in Madrid and seeing so many people reading it on the subway. I later received the book as a gift from a friend who had really enjoyed it, so it seemed a good idea to suggest it for the group.

I was relieved that some people clearly had enjoyed the book. I felt it was a good yarn and enjoyed the plot, character of Daniel and the idea of a book having such an impact on a young boy. I found it engaging, enjoyable and very readable. It's obviously not going to make it on any literary list but that was never this book's aim. It would make a good holiday read.

The most striking feature about the discussion for Shadow was the gender division. Largely, though not exclusively, the women spoke positively about the book, the plot, the characters, the descriptions. The menfolk, on the other hand, were uniformly negative and criticised the book for its lack of believable characterisation, for being too wordy and for being predictable.

Most people agreed the start was engaging and set up a good mystery. Some felt that this was maintained throughout, whereas others felt it fell apart and that the plot was too transparent. I'm not one to predict plots in books or in films so I was not disappointed. Other people are a bit cannier and predicted a lot of the development early on.

I really liked the image of Laín Coubert and his leathery skin. I was always really pleased when he appeared in the novel and I love the idea of a character in a book appearing in real life. I think these were the more memorable images and scenes.

One criticism I have of the book is the lack of historical and cultural references. It was commented that this was not the Barcelona members of the group have experienced. The weather seemed decidedly British at times with rain, mist, fog, cold. Were there ever moments of sunshine and brightness? Rather surprisingly, the relatively new dictatorship and mentions of the civil war were also absent. I don't recall Franco getting much of a mention, yet surely during this time he would be a presence? It was felt for a lot of the group that this was a missed opportunity to explore Spain's recent past.

Many people did feel that the book had been written with the intention of becoming a film. The author has written screenplays before so perhaps this has affected his writing style. It was agreed that the title was meaningless but there was instead a suggestion of a new title, 'A flicker of a light'. Let's hope Ruiz Zafón reads this blog and gets the title right next time.

Please be blogging right

2008-10-08T15:38:00.005+01:00

Oh goodness me I hope I'm doing this right!!! This is just a little test to determine whether I'm the complete technophobic muppet I think I am or whether I am - dare I say it - blogging (I'm unsure of the correct "label" for what I'm doing, but hey ho)!!!

Great seeing you all last night, and sorry if everyone just got excited at the thought of a new post on the blog and here it is just little old me pratting about! Sorry!

See, this is where I click "publish post" and realise my warblings have been lost to cyberspace forever......ah well, maybe someone's listening! Oh gosh, and I've just realised there's a "title" section and a "label" section which has now confused me COMPLETELY....aaarrrggghhhh!

Labelling and Rating

2008-09-16T00:10:00.002+01:00

LABELLING

When you write a review, please give your post the label (aka tag or category) of book review. This way we can filter out the reviews from any other stuff we feel inspired to post here. I'm already trying to turn you into geeks (label = blog) and I think it's only a matter of time before Emmajane sets us one of her frightening quizzes (label = reign of terror?. :) So, if you do feel inspired to blog, use an existing label or add a suitable new one at the end of your post and we can be highly organised.

RATING

I've been looking for a way of recording our "thumbs" against each review. I've found a simple method that I think will do.

Each blog post now includes a star rating widget. Just click on the number of stars you think most nearly corresponds to your virtual thumb position. The stars are conveniently rated Bad; Boring; OK; Good; Excellent - which seems almost (but not quite) as scientific as the ISO recommended Warnock® Evaluative Thumb Methodology™. Obviously this is only really relevant and necessary for book review posts but will be there on all posts.

So - please pop off now and rate The Ladies.

Need Feeding Up?

2008-09-09T23:50:00.002+01:00

This blogging business is OK but I'm going to need to keep going to the blog to see if my playmates have shared a pearl of wisdom. I'll not remember to look and I'm going to miss exciting things! Well, no actually. I mean - there will be exciting things but you needn't miss them.

Ignore me if you know this already - but "web feeds" are your new best friends if you want to easily track web content that updates - and blogs are a case in point.

A web feed is a broadcast of what's new on the blog. You can subscribe to the feed and easily see something new has happened when you're using your browser when you're ReadItSwapIt-ing, Amazon-ing, YouTube-ing etc.

There are two feeds for our blog:

In Internet Explorer 7, it's really easy to subscribe to a feed. I don't know much about the other browsers but apparently it should be quite straightforward in recent versions of those and works on similar lines. Click one of the links above, a page will open and (in IE7) you'll get an option to Subscribe to that feed. Click that and you'll then be asked how you want to save it - just like you do for favourites / bookmarks.

Once you've subscribed you've started building a list of feeds like your favourites / bookmarks list - as in the picture. Feeds with new and updated content show in bold. Once you've read a feed you can mark it as read. When you're looking at a feed you can read the content there or click on a link to see the original post in all its glory.

Newer versions of browsers (like IE7) flag up when feeds of a web page or site are available - look for a button with this logo and you can start subscribing to web feeds from The Archers to Lolcats.

I think that using feeds gives a blog a chance of being more active - and it makes it less effort. Hope that helps! I like it anyway.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu

2008-09-03T20:52:00.001+01:00

We discussed this at our meeting on Tuesday 2 Sept 2008. I had suggested it after enjoying her previous novel "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" so much but was left feeling disappointed. This was pretty much the view of all us that evening although one person did give it a very definite thumbs up.

To summarise our comments - most of us felt that short stories did not work well although we enjoyed some of them (the title story being one of the favourites) and thought they should have been expanded to develop characters and plot more. We think she is a very creative writer and admire her sense of imagination and story telling (although the re-work of Rumpelstilstkin was considered a bit of a cheat). We appreciated the fascination of the blurring of two worlds - human and Faerie - especially in stories like Mrs Mabb.

But, in comparison to the epic JS&MN this collection did not fare well and there was some cynicism amongst the group about the fact that the stories had been gathered together for publication on the back of the success of the former (although noted that some of the stories pre-date the novel.

This is the first post on this Red Deer Readers blog - hope it is not the last!!

Jan
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