Archive for August 2009
The lush garden of insanity and death
Bird, Carmel ~ The White Garden
When I selected this book I thought
I cheated a little because I’ve read this book but wanted to read again to understand more fully the layers of literary and historical references in Bird’s story.
50-word description
Set in 1950s Australia, psychiatrist Ambrose Goddard experiments on female patients to further his landmark studies into the human mind. Patients’ delusions are encouraged, radical therapies experimented with and sexual abuse is rampant. The discovery of a dead woman in the clinic’s grounds helps unveil the true lunatic.
150-word review
Bird masterfully chronicles Goddard’s growing megalomania as his patients’ mental states crumble in the name of providing case studies for his book.
The White Garden is disarming with drugged patients describing abuse in dazed monologues, point of view shifts to the doctor’s and backgrounds of historical figures on whom some patients’ delusions are based. Cross-referencing was required occasionally (by me anyway) to hold the past and present together and understand how cleverly the author has constructed and tied up the story.
The book is an obscure but important piece of Australian literature and a reminder that quality doesn’t always equate with popularity.
carmel bird ~ the white garden
Found in
Home library
Read
Jul 09
Links
Author’s web site
Frankston Library catalogue link – n/a
Rating
Outstanding
This is book 26 of the project.
