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Loading... The Big Girls (Vintage Contemporaries) (edition 2008)by Susanna Moore
Work InformationThe Big Girls by Susanna Moore
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Susanna Moore uses four voices/viewpoints to deliver the strong medicine of "The Big Girls": Helen has been incarcerated after being convicted of a ghastly crime; Louise, her prison psychiatrist; Captain Bradshaw, a prison guard; and Angie, a celebrated young actress in Hollywood. We follow Helen's and Louise's progress as they hack through the difficult - nay, torturous - thicket of Helen's life. Helping Helen find the truth behind her delusions takes a heavy toll on Louise, as Helen's celebrated case brings intense focus, welcome and unwelcome, on the two protaganists. This book reminds us of the sickeningly common pattern of physical and sexual abuse of girls and women. With some, like Helen, it results in frightful hallucinations, a splintered personality, and a desperate, psychotic urge to protect her own children. Louise, Angie, and the guard, Ike Bradshaw all are drawn up in the powerful struggle. Even Louise's little boy is affected. The characterizations are deep and fully realized here - no cardboard cutouts, no stereotypes. Ike, the most important male character, stands as a well-rounded, wounded person, grounded, and very considerate of Louise's feelings. He's even fairly benign toward the inmates, including the difficult ones. Ms. Moore's main success rests in her effective handling of this crippling emotional issue. This is a thought-provoking, sensitive read, and I recommend it for its deep dive into the minds and hearts of its four players. THE BIG GIRLS doesn't grab you so much as seduce you into reading it. The story is about four people whose lives overlap in odd and interesting ways. It tackles issues like family, fortune (or the lack of it), coincidence and fate. The book starts off from the point of view of Dr. Louise Forrest, the new chief of psychiatry at a women's prison. The narrative then switches to Helen, a schizophrenic inmate who's committed a crime so heinous, she's kept apart from the other prisoners at first. Helen is obsessed with contacting Angie, an ambitious Hollywood actress, who happens to be dating Dr. Forrest's ex-husband. Dr. Forrest eventually hooks up with Ike Bradshaw, a no-nonsense prison guard. The story focuses primarily on Dr. Forrest and Helen, at first. The other two main characters' perspectives get included in time. Together, the narratives combine to create a compelling and ambitious overall story – one that explores each character's demons and the gritty realities of prison life. For more, read: http://modern-american-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/review_the_big_girls I enjoyed this sparsely written novel about a prision psychiatrist and her patient, Helen. The book jumps right into the story; not a lot of description or background....just short sections narrated by various characters, mostly Dr. Forrest and Helen. As you read their words, you get to know them, much the way to get to know people in real life through conversation. The book explores relationships in terms of getting close to the wrong people, or getting close in the wrong way. The lives of the prisoners and of the prison staff are not that different in the way that relationships can enrich our lives, or have disastrous consequences. Reviewed in Mystery Scene. no reviews | add a review
Distinctions
A crime of unfathomable horror has a ripple-like effect on four profoundly different souls. Helen, a troubled inmate at Sloatsburg women's prison, is serving a life sentence for the murder of her children. Dr. Louise Forrest, the recently divorced mother of an eight-year-old boy, has forsworn the Park Avenue practice for which she trained in favor of the chief of psychiatry job at Sloatsburg. Former New York City narcotics detective Ike Bradshaw is a sardonic corrections officer at the prison. And Angie, an ambitious Hollywood starlet, is intent on nothing but achieving fame. As the alternating narratives unfold, mysteries are revealed and the surprising connection between them is uncovered. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This is a fabulous disturbing read about the tragic lives of women in prison. ( )