This is extraordinary account of a man's psychiatric illness, and the effect that his incarceration in a mental hospital near Boston, greater and more far-reaching than the man's condition, had on he himself, his wife and his family.

Though fiction, this account is very strongly based on the life of the author's grandfather, via family stories, his own memeories, and the accounts he has been able to find.

There are many characters who, through the author's compassionate depiction of them, we come to view sympathetically. There is Frederick himself, and his wife Katharine. There is Professor Schultz, whose life's work is about recording the language which only he is able to hear. And there is Canon, whose autocratic and ultimately disastrous period as Director of the mental hospital where Frederick is incarcerated, is in the end written about with some compassion.

This is a powerful, well-written and compelling book. A must-read. ( )

I am finding the review of this content-rich book difficult so I will just be presenting an overview which perhaps may be lacking in important elements.

Firstly, I would state that this is the most exquisitely-written novel I long have encountered.

It tells the story of the author’s grandparents.

His grandfather, Frederick, suffered from what we now call bipolar disorder, formerly manic-depressive illness, and his behaviour brought much distress to the family and particularly Frederick’s wife, Katharine.

I myself have known two persons who suffered from this disease, but these days, or at least when I knew these two persons, patients are treated with large amounts of lithium, which normalizes their behaviour.

One of these persons, whom I regarded as a good friend, became aware that the lithium was harming his organs and therefore stopped taking it; he visited me on one occasion, when I observed the extent of his illness: he couldn’t find peace but paced back and forth in my living-room. I asked him whether he could sleep at night and he told me no. Another day he had a quarrel with a policeman on a motorway and as far as I recall was arrested and spent the night in gaol. (This was a highly respected man with a top job who previously had had no problems with the law whatsoever to my knowledge)

I believe he was correct in his assessment of the harmfulness of the amounts of lithium he had to take, since he is long since dead.

So I can well imagine the disturbed behaviour of Frederick in those days before lithium was adopted as a treatment for mania.

Frederick’s wife eventually had him committed to an institution that in the book was called The Mayflower Home for the Mentally Ill.

Though the book is based on the story of the author’s grandparents, it is otherwise mostly fictional.

Frederick was a “man of manic passions” and a gifted writer; he was also “an alcoholic, a philanderer, a madman who once exposed himself on the road leading into town – he was insane, and she (Katharine) was sane”.

The mental hospital to which Frederick was confined was “populated by great poets and writers” including the poet Robert Lowell, who appeared in the book.

The doctor in charge, Dr Wallace, tells Frederick he just needs to be patient. He will be feeling like his old self in a month or two. All he needs is a good rest.

And Katherine and her four daughters seem also to be under the illusion that after his stay at the Mayflower Frederick will be cured.

We are given an account of Frederick’s stay there and his relations with the doctors and the other patients, including Lowell.

The details of the other patients’ illnesses are also portrayed with much insight into their aetiology.

There is Marshall, a war hero who awakens to find himself deprived of three appendages and screams nearly every morning.

Lowell is delusional, believing himself to be Christ, Milton or Shakespeare. He has memorized Paradise Lost, Hamlet and the Inferno in their entirety, and believes them all to be in need of revision.

There is Professor Schultz who at the age of 17 began to hear strange sounds after his mother had been run over; subsequently, his father hanged himself.

Schultz discovers a new language which only he himself speaks; this of course prevents him communicating with others.

There is Marvin, who has fifteen personalities, ranging from a French poet to an admiral.

Frederick is permitted to write in his journal. His thoughts are: “how, drugged, left to long empty days, is one supposed to get better in such a place, when the omnipresence of the sedatives never admits clarity?”

“Is this ennui, this distance from life, the sanity to which others want to force him? When he feels nothing, will he be released?”

Dr Wallace has stated that part of Frederick’s affliction is to pull Katherine into his confusion. And this is precisely what happens: Katharine’s own mental state is affected by the situation.

Dr Canon takes over from Dr Wallace and questions the latter’s choice of treatments. Is electroconvulsive therapy an ethical form of treatment?

Katharine considers having an affair with a former admirer.

This review indicates just a small part of the book’s rich content and story-line. I highly recommend that you read this beautiful, insightful, divinely-formulated account of the ordeal of the author’s grandparents and his grandfather’s stay in a mental institution. ( )

Beautifully written, sad fictionalized story of the author's maternal grandparents and their experience with his drinking, philandering and mental illness. He is admited to a 1960's psychiatric hospital (patterned after the renowned McLean Hospital near Boston where Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell each spent time). It is a grim but compelling tale of mental illness and enduring love. ( )

Now, I don’t quite know what to say about this book other than it was the best read and the worst read…

And it certainly hit close to home…

The part story, part biography follows the lives of Frederick and Katharine married during WWII after a whirlwind romance. Frederick was dashing in his naval uniform, she of well to do from Boston. He was an exciting, a go-getter, an extrovert, the life of the party. She was quite the opposite, and bent to his ministrations.

Then, some 15 years after the war during a party with close friends and family, Frederick, loaded to the gunwales (pronounced gunnils) on bourbon heads outside with a friends trench coat on to proceed to the highway to flash passersby as a joke. Only it backfired when he was arrested…

In those days two things were provided as an option; go to jail, or be declared ‘tired’ which required a spot of R&R in Mayflower, the best psychiatric unit in the States, and that’s just what Katharine opted for.

In one of the most compelling stories I have read of late it follows the impact on both of them, he trying to prove he isn’t a loony, she trying to keep up appearances in a close-knit and gossipy community.

I cannot give too much away, but it is well worth the read, although I found too often Block worded it with so much psychobabble and used words that had me reaching for the dictionary (and I consider myself well learned on English) which slowed and frustrated me and slighted what would have been close to a 10/10 novel.

But, as mentioned earlier…it was a kick in the guts. Frederick was diagnosed as ‘manic depressive’.

I have always suspected I was manic-depressive. By the book this may not be the case, but I do suffer from depression and the book mirrored a lot of my life to date (nudity included actually) and has made me take pause.

If you question yourself, get it…if you suspect someone else, get it. If you want a story slightly left of field, get it.

Just keep a Thesaurus nearby… ( )

This a beautifully written novel, in language which is often poignant and rather poetic. I did find the first third of the book to be quite slow, and so it took me a little while to settle into it. Eventually however I became quite immersed into the lives of Katherine and Frederick Merrill.

This is a biographical novel, a novel written about the author's own grandparents. It is therefore hard to know where exactly the fiction begins and the biographical nature of the story ends, and how important this is to the reader I can't decide. This must have been an incredibly important book for this young author to write, there must have been a sort of healing in the act of laying bare the facts of his grandparents difficult marriage. Set mainly in New Hampshire in 1962 - this is the story of Katherine and Frederick Merrill, of Frederick's mental illness and incarceration in a psychiatric hospital, and how Katherine left behind managed keep things going.
Sometimes Katherine seems a bit hard, in her attitude to her husband locked away in the Mayflower asylum - but this is her coping mechanism - she is a still young woman with four daughters to bring up. She is alone, her own father, once supportive to her and her husband is now much less so, and is threatening to pull the plug on the bills, she has no idea when her husband will return, or in what condition. Meanwhile her husband is dependent upon the staff of his psychiatric hospital. Dr Canon - a deeply flawed man himself, subjects Frederick to electric shock treatment and solitary confinement - because Frederick knows a secret about him. Frederick is locked up with some deeply troubled and brilliant minds - these characters are fascinating, and help to bring the story to life. The story of the asylum, Dr Canon and his staff I found dreadfully sad, and no doubt horrifyingly authentic. ( )