Asylum

La copertina del libro è in prevalenza di colore nero, e trovo che questa oscurità non sia stata scelta per caso, perché è esattamente quella che si percepisce nelle sue pagine. Capitolo dopo capitolo si entra sempre più a capofitto in questa ombra nera, ritrovandosi spiazzati ed increduli.
Si tratta di una vera e propria analisi psicologica raccontata nei minimi dettagli. Analisi della reale protagonista del libro, Stella, che io personalmente non ho ancora compreso nella totalità. Lascia di stucco ogni suo gesto e pensiero, anche se analizzato e raccontato dal suo medico.
Ci si ritrova alle volte a sentirsi quasi disgustati di fronte al suo egoismo sfrontato, altre volte comprensivi per ciò che la donna deve passare, e altre show more volte ancora a tifare per lei ed Edgar.
Ma alla fine, alla fine di tutto, viene da chiedersi se realmente ci sia qualcuno dei protagonisti che possa dirsi pienamente sano di mente. D'altronde è il titolo stesso il riassunto perfetto. Follia. Forse è questo il messaggio. Tutti abbiamo un po' di follia, compresi i protagonisti di questa storia. show less

There is a certain style of novel that always captivates me. Usually British, it is set either pre- or post-war, and the characters are mainly upper-class. They live in a bubble removed from the outside world, and their actions thus cause devastating rippled effects within their isolated community. E.M. Forster wrote novels like this, and so too, I have discovered, does Patrick McGrath. At least, this one is.

The insular, bubble-like world that McGrath has created in Asylum is reflected in the three main settings of the novel. The story opens at a large, Victorian-era asylum for the criminally insane in the English countryside, where Stella, the unfulfilled wife of one of the hospital’s psychiatrists, begins a dangerous love affair show more with an inmate, Edgar Stark, a psychopathic sculptor who decapitated his wife. From there, the action moves to a slovenly garret room in the industrial section of London, and then to the desolate moors of north Wales. These settings reflect the characters’ situation: isolated from the world, unable to release their emotions in anything but destructive ways, existing in a fragile bubble always in danger of shattering.

This story is about obsession. Soon after starting the affair with Edgar, Stella finds herself growing more obsessed with him and taking more risks. It is unclear whether Edgar is just using her to find a way to escape from the hospital, or whether he is equally obsessed. Even after he does disappear and the affair is discovered, the damage is reparable; everyone around Stella wants to preserve the bubble they live in — until she follows Edgar to London and sets in motion a chain of events with an inevitably tragic outcome.

Stella relates the story of her obsessive love affair to her friend and psychiatrist, Peter, the narrator. Peter and the reader remain unsure whether she is hiding the truth to manipulate him, whether her obsession continues despite everything that happens as a result of the affair. Eventually, the reader discovers that Peter, ostensibly the objective narrator looking in from the outside, harbors an obsession as well, which colors how he sees and describes Stella. We are left with the question of whether Stella was actually responsible for everything that happened, or whether her obsession was a sickness she couldn’t help acting upon.

This is a fast read, suspenseful, erotic and horrifying. Despite the ambiguity of the story, it is also very satisfying gothic horror and psychological suspense. show less

The story is told by a psychiatrist familiar with the case and stupidly it took me half of the book before I realized why this particular person was relating events. It's a compelling story, very well written but sordid! And filled with hideous people. Stella, the wife of doctor working in a high security psychiatric hospital, has a steamy affair with one of the patients, a patient who murdered his wife. When he escaped from the hospital with her help, she left her husband to move in with him. Obviously this is not going to end well for Stella.

This is a difficult one to rate because it's so sordid and unpleasant. However, Ian McKellen, the audiobook narrator, gave a five-star performance.

Asylum is a story about the consequences of obsessional love. In this dark novel, the wife of a resident psychiatrist at an asylum for the criminally insane becomes deeply infatuated with a very disturbed inmate who murdered his wife. When he escapes, she follows him to London, and his madness unravels in ways that deeply affect everyone involved in their past. None of the characters in this book is likeable. Stella, the wife, is despicable, her psychiatrist husband is a weak "mama's boy," and the peripheral characters are without redeeming qualities. The novel is narrated by Cleave, another psychiatrist with his own agenda. Patrick McGrath is certainly a master at displaying the dark side of human nature.

This is my first time reading a Patrick McGrath story. It will not be my last. I don't know how I haven't come across his work before, and I feel I have to catch up on all that I've missed out on.

Normally, I finish a book and immediately pronounce to myself whether it was good or bad, and then I'm off to the next selection from my burgeoning bookshelves. It's been awhile, however, since I closed the pages of a story and had to sit and reflect for a few moments afterwards. Without question, this was an excellent book, and I needed more time to think on the very nature behind the story, the characters, and events. Needless to say, I brooded and ruminated on the ending for quite some time.

Asylum, by Patrick McGrath has done all of this. It show more has all the elements of a story that I like -- a haunting setting in the gloomy and sweeping English countryside, a dark love affair, secrets, and ambiguity.

Stella is the mother of a young boy, Charlie and the wife of Max, an esteemed psychiatrist at a maximum-security institution for the criminally insane just outside of London, England, in the late 1950s. Her day to day life of wife and mother is mundane, and her husband really doesn't have the drive or passion to keep her interested. Only a few patients are granted access to the grounds around the house on the institution, to work on the garden or to redo the old conservatory, with a watchful group of staff nearby. Unbeknownst to all, though, Stella becomes the lover of an incredibly dangerous patient, Edgar. He's quite an artist, but he's also destructively jealous -- his unending stay in the institution was determined because he killed his wife in a brutal and mutilating manner, apparently because she was seeing other men. Stella, however, still finds herself uncontrollably drawn to him and caught up in the passion of this bizarre love.

This is an absolutely fascinating story and it is incredibly written, told through the perspective of another doctor at the institution, the older and wiser Dr. Peter Cleave. I initially thought I wouldn't care for this character, but I ultimately found that not only was it necessary in order to describe a general understanding of the mind -- the breakdown of Stella, the depth of manipulation by Edgar, and the ultimate weaknesses of Stella's husband, but it also explained the neurosis and psychosis of the characters. The insight Dr. Cleave provided was so critical to understand how these fictionalized people became completely devoid of reality only to succumb to the obsession everyone represses -- the ability to become thoroughly self-obsessed, whether or not it destroys innocent lives.

With Peter telling the story, in some scenes almost clinically, it created a much more haunting feel and I felt completely entrenched in the story. Several times it seemed to intensify so sadly and in such a disturbing nature, that I couldn't fathom it to turn more grim than it already was, but the author was able to continue down that path even further. Peter provides a trusting credibility that lends quite a bit to the pleasure that I had in the twists that occurred. I was mortified, angry, heartbroken, and completely engrossed in the story.

Patrick McGrath has created a suspenseful psychological thriller of obsession with oneself. It is haunting and dark, deeply erotic in some scenes, and altogether disturbing. Highly recommended, and I will be on the lookout for more Patrick McGrath books. show less

This reminded me of Madame Bovary in a lot of ways. Stella is portrayed as a bored woman, trapped in a marriage that doesn’t come close to fulfilling her. Unlike Mme. B, she doesn’t actively tear down her husband. Instead, she starts this affair with Stark. She doesn’t believe that this man who so captivates her could have possibly done what he did (which we aren’t told in detail until the end). Stark uses her to escape and later sends for her.

It was pretty creepy. The language was terrific though. Not too poetic and not too stark. Nice flow and description of Stella’s encroaching madness. The dreams. Her screwing of the landlord of their house in Wales. She was out there and didn’t care. Although, even then she was just as show more careful to conceal what she was doing as she was when she was screwing Edgar at the hospital. For all her madness, she knew what she was doing had to be concealed. show less

this did not end the way i expected it to. while i like not being able to see the ending, i think mine would have been better. (ha) but this was an interesting read. i'm not really sure how much i liked it, but that's probably just because i'm less interested in hearing the whole story (especially as it's largely her story) being told through a male observer's eyes. it makes him unreliable as a narrator, because he can't know certain things, but that wasn't used in a way that makes it matter, like i wish he would have. still, this is largely about how people see others and evaluate them, so in that sense it is powerful to have this be told by someone else. i liked it, just not as much as i think i could have.

"Usually they want you to show more keep your mouth shut, but sometimes they want you to shout, and they expect you to know the difference."

"'Tragedy isn't as rare a feature of life as we sometimes imagine.'" show less