Blue Asylum

‘Blue Asylum’ by Kathy Hephinstall is a short tale of wrongful imprisonment in an insane asylum. It was easy to get into the story and didn’t bog down in places. Set during the Civil War on Sanibel Island, a place well known for excellent seashell hunting, the main character, Iris and the son of the superintendent, Wendell, do collect shells several on the beach. But this is not a light and sunny story, it is one of guilty secrets buried so deep that they disturbed the peace of mind of the possessors.

Iris Dunleavy was shipped to the island along with a herd of cattle. Her husband had declared her insane and a Judge signed the papers to have her committed. Her trial had taken less than an hour. The story of what led up to her show more husband, Robert putting her away is slowly revealed through her memories. While she was at the Sanibel Asylum for Lunatics, she met and befriended Wendell who grew up without children his age and feeling like a prisoner on the island.

Wendell’s father, Dr. Cowell had gained prestige by writing a paper on lunacy among women and the rising suffrage movement. Wendell’s mother, Mary, is in her own little world of laudanum, chocolate and remedies of the time.

Iris falls for a wounded Confederate soldier, Ambrose, who suffers pain from his stump but even more pain from a terrible event in during his time as a soldier. The emotional pain from that even was so overwhelming that he was taught by Dr. Cowell to think of blue, blue sky, blue birds, blue anything so that he could distract himself from the horror. Slowly, we learn Ambrose’s terrible secret too. But Iris and Ambrose were not able to break through of their guilt, so strong was their feeling that they were responsible for awful things that happened.

This story is part historical fiction, part mystery, part expose of slavery, the condition of women and of power of the strong over the helpless. I did get hooked early on this story and had trouble laying it down. I really like the beach setting and its contrast to many of the dark lives of the characters. The beach was the sole place that they could feel free away from the asylum. I think it brought up many psychological and social issues that could have been examined in a longer book. On the whole, I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to any historical fiction fan or history fan.

I received this book from the Amazon Vine Program and that in no way influenced my review. show less

I was hooked by Jeremy’s interview with the author in June’s State of the Thing. Then, like her chef catching fish for the lunatics’ dinners off the shore of this Florida island, Kathy Hepinstall finished reeling me in with her intriguing story in Blue Asylum. With the Civil War ongoing in the background of the story, Dr. Cowell plies the modern methods of dealing with the insane in his asylum catering to the well-to-do on Sanibel Island. Iris, the no-longer-naïve plantation wife, and Ambrose, the confederate soldier tortured by his war memories, find their own patch of sanity amidst the insanity of their treatments, the rules and the insane.

”…the psychiatrist, had told him that the secret was not so much in forgetting as in show more distracting oneself. Think of the color blue, the doctor had suggested. Blue, nothing else. Blue ink spilling on a page. A blue sheet flapping on a clothesline. Blue of blueberries. Of water. Of a vase a feather a shell a morning glory a splash on the wing of a pileated woodpecker.”

Ms. Hepinstall did well by her characters, each totally believable, warts and all. Her setting, inside the walls of the asylum, and outside on the island, was starkly and beautifully written. Her research did not overpower her story – her story that gripped me right through to the end. show less

This is a book that stays with you long after you have read it. Iris Dunleavy has been sent to the insane asylum on Sanibel Island after escaping from her husband's plantation along with a group of slaves. She tries to explain her situation to the asylum's doctor, but finds that her story is one that sounds so horrific that it can't be true. She does find allies: Wendell, the doctor's son, and Ambrose, a civil war soldier trying to recover from what seems to be shell shock. The three of them plot an escape, but it's a journey that leads them to truths that none of them could foresee. Some things just cannot be left behind.

Beautiful prose; haunting story.

What is normal? Who gets to decide what is outside the bounds of normal? The DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)? The courts? Society? Family? The person him or herself? Not so long ago, women's defined mental states were entirely at the mercy of their families, fathers, husbands, male children, etc. More completely sane, smart, independent, and freethinking women were committed to mental institutions based on the testimony of the disgruntled men in their lives than ever should have been.

In Kathy Hepinstall's gripping novel, Blue Asylum, set during the American Civil War, main character Iris Dunleavy is sent to an insane asylum on Sanibel Island because she has turned out to be an embarrassment to her husband, show more defying him, and disagreeing with him on fundamental moral issues, including the issue of slavery which was rending the entire country apart. She has been committed to the asylum on the say so of her husband, whom she knows to be amoral and guilty of a heinous crime, and a judge, who clearly discounts a woman's tale, even one told in truth. And she arrives on the island remanded to the care of a pompous and self-involved doctor who is incapable or unwilling to listen to her and to hear the truth of her story. It would be enough to drive any sane person crazy. But quiet, observant Iris is made of stronger stuff than most. She befriends the doctor's young son Wendell and, improbably enough, falls in love with a fellow inmate, Ambrose Weller, a soldier who suffers terrible attacks and rage as a result of his experiences in the war and who can only sometimes be soothed by invoking the idea of the calming color blue.

Both Iris' and Ambrose's stories tease out through the narrative, slowly drawing the reader into the awful horrors in their pasts that caused them to end up in Sanibel Asylum even as their future quietly and cautiously unspools before them. Dr. Cowell's past experiences and the tragedy in Wendell's young life are also carefully revealed, offering both of these secondary characters motivation for their actions towards the "lunatics," and specifically Iris and Ambrose. As Iris falls for Ambrose, she decides she must include him in her plans to escape the island, certain that her love will be able to cure him in ways that Dr. Cowell's techniques have not yet managed. And yet despite her desire to leave and to be with her love, can Iris really reintegrate herself in a society that has locked her away without a second thought? And can Ambrose overcome the terrible moment that destroyed him, breaking the grip the war has on his mind and memories?

Hepinstall has written a fantastic, short novel about the place of women in the 1860's, questions of sanity and morality, the horrors of war, and of love and truth. Her characters are wonderfully real and well rounded. The smooth, even pace of the novel is perfect, sweeping the reader along as Iris, Ambrose, Wendell, and Dr. Cowell interact in concert and at cross-purposes as they move towards their inevitable conclusion. The evocative writing makes the buggy, humid, lush environs of Sanibel Island come alive as a place just far enough removed from the war raging on the mainland that it seems isolated and almost untouched by the turmoil except in small key ways, like the inability to get supplies, especially meat, in a timely manner. Sanibel Asylum is a time out of place just as the people incarcerated there are a people out of accepted society. This is definitely a book not to be missed. show less

If you are looking for a book to read on the beach or just to while away a quiet afternoon, that will draw you in and beckon you back, this is it. Written with a prose that is at once simple and yet profound, as it deftly describes the atmosphere, in the luxury asylum for lunatics where Iris Dunleavy has been sent by her husband, this book won’t disappoint you. It is an illuminating vision of what life was like for a woman who opposed a husband in a position of authority, when she had none.

Iris is a soft spoken, but impulsive and determined woman. During the time of the Civil War, the women of the south were really under the control of their husbands, as were the slaves on their plantations, and, they too, were expected to be obedient show more and subservient to them. It was often the treatment of headstrong women, to be sent to lunatic asylums by their more powerful, cruel and arrogant husbands, in order to prevent them from embarrassing them, or themselves, by engaging in activities they deemed not respectable or proper for a lady. Engaging in women’s right’s movements or the politics of the day, was frowned upon, and thought to be unladylike subjects unfit for the delicate mind and constitution of women. Defying one's husband, especially in a public situation, was an absolutely humiliating affront to him and was, generally, not tolerated.

Immediately, on the first page, the readers are drawn into the story as they watch Iris as she stands on the deck of the ship taking her to the asylum in Virginia. Her back is straight and he demeanor calm. Her first thoughts are of the beauty of the location as she draws near. She sees a child and a black man, the son of the doctor who is the head of the asylum and the chef, fishing off the pier. She watches a young man, Ambrose, a former soldier suffering from the trauma of war, as he sits quietly before a checker board and appears quite normal. The relationship that blooms between Iris and Ambrose is a major theme.

The book makes you wonder, who is mad, who is sane, who gets to decide? Is Dr. Cowell fit to be the judge or is he just as mad as his patients? What motivates him? Is it his ego or his desire to return these people to the outside world again? Are the people who are employed there just a little mad also, or are they the victims of the madness surrounding them? Are the patients mad or has the environment they have been subjected to created the mental illness? Are women weak and frail, unfit to participate in the activities of men? Did Iris behave like a woman who has lost her sanity? Is Iris Dunleavy mad or is she simply the victim of her husband's authority?

This book is very intense. Near the end I was almost afraid to read on, fearful of the conclusion. I wondered if it would be happy, sad, gruesome? The author builds up the pressure until you feel afraid to turn the page for fear of what you will read. Although the ending is completely unexpected, I found it a little bit disappointing. On the whole, though, this is an imaginative, creative and original story. The chapters are short and easy to read. You won’t lose interest, because when you feel you might, the subject changes, just at the right time, and the story continues to hold your attention.

Can mental illness be cured? Can mistakes be forgiven? Can love conquer all? On the very last page, there is a scene with a lady who dances with a husband who isn’t really there. She imagines him into life. Is this the message of the book? Is she better off than those who live in misery, missing the person that isn’t there, the appendage that isn’t there, yearning for something unattainable? How do we find happiness? Did the doctor’s own arrogance and narcissism cause the events that transpired? The story will make you wonder what madness is, and who, indeed, is mad? In the 1800’s, psychiatry was in its infancy, the methods were untried and untested, the treatments were sometimes barbaric. Have we made any progress today or have we merely given the diagnoses, treatments and medications a different name? This book definitely packs a wallop and it will remain with you for a long time.

As an aside, if you enjoy this book, you might also want to see the film, "Iron Jawed Angels". It is a wonderful movie about the women who fought for the right to vote in the early 1900's, and the men who ruled over them, having them imprisoned indefinitely in asylums, as punishment for their outspoken behavior, believing this would cure them and return them to their conciliatory state of mind. Their pride was more important than their wives independence; even those that were well loved were mishandled in this way. show less

She liked the God she met that day. A playful, saltwater God. And this meeting, she knew, was the way her father planned it for her. Every father wants a daughter to meet the right God, and the right man. Perhaps her father had failed with both. Pg. 52

Convicted of insanity, Iris Dunleavy, the wife of a plantation owner is shipped off to island so that she can be rehabilitated and taught how once again to be a proper, contributing member of society. The only problem? Iris claims to be of sound mind, the victim of a dominating and abhorrent excuse for a husband. Surrounded by a community of crazies, a man who constantly freezes mid-step, a woman who swallows everything, and another woman who continues to communicate with a husband long show more deceased, Iris bides her time, waiting for the perfect moment to make her escape. It was her mind, or perhaps her lack of one that sends her to the island as a prisoner. In the end, it may be her heart that robs her of the freedom she's yearned for her entire life.

Blue Asylum is a beautifully written story about one women's journey of defiance during a very ugly period of American history. In this world, women and lunatics share the same fate, a voiceless and powerless existence and the inability to dictate the way their lives will be lived. The supporting characters, some with tragic tales of their own provide the occasional light hearted moments to balance the overall serious tone of the story. A highly recommended read that is equal parts captivating story with perfectly balanced poetic expression. show less

Kathy Hepinstall's Blue Asylum (HMH, 2012) makes for a fine afternoon's read. In the midst of the Civil War, Iris Dunleavy, adjudged a lunatic, is sent to an asylum on Sanibel Island. The island is populated by a cast of the mentally unwell (most of whom make for fairly endearing characters), a nasty matron, and the family of the asylum doctor: Henry Cowell himself, his wife, and their son Wendell, growing up in the isolation of an island madhouse and fearing for his own sanity.

We learn more about what has brought Iris to this place in little snippets throughout the book (I don't want to spoil it here), and the reader is often made to wonder just exactly who is and isn't "crazy."

Hepinstall writes well, and she's composed a beautiful show more story. I tore through it because I was most intrigued to know how she made it all turn out. Recommended. show less