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A review by tonyfrobisher
Saving Lucia by Anna Vaught
5.0
Let Madness Take Flight
Who is mad?
I took my time reading Saving Lucia. The narrative style is personal and has a unique voice that draws you in, as if a confidante.
Who is mad? A question that is illustrated in generous, expansive erudition. The stories of four women; enclosed, imprisoned, confined within in a mental asylum - primarily focusing on Violet Gibson and Lucia Joyce. Gibson who attempted to assassinate Mussolini and was locked away in the asylum subsequently and Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce.
The book unravels slowly, the questions posed about madness, mental illness, the judgement of society towards those deemed 'mad', the convenience of the time (the first part of last century) to have someone 'burdensome' committed as mad are all treated with sensitivity and honesty. A rare and enlightening treatise on madness, voiced by the afflicted...are they really mad?
Who is mad? Is it the commited or those who commit?
A novel of fiction, though centred on real people and events, Anna Vaught writes with a beautiful turn of phrase.
Take your time and read each page, savour the prose and take flight, join the birds that visit the mad. Perch on their arms and shoulders and stay a while.
A book very different to any I have read, and all the better for it. Highly recommended.
Who is mad?
I took my time reading Saving Lucia. The narrative style is personal and has a unique voice that draws you in, as if a confidante.
Who is mad? A question that is illustrated in generous, expansive erudition. The stories of four women; enclosed, imprisoned, confined within in a mental asylum - primarily focusing on Violet Gibson and Lucia Joyce. Gibson who attempted to assassinate Mussolini and was locked away in the asylum subsequently and Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce.
The book unravels slowly, the questions posed about madness, mental illness, the judgement of society towards those deemed 'mad', the convenience of the time (the first part of last century) to have someone 'burdensome' committed as mad are all treated with sensitivity and honesty. A rare and enlightening treatise on madness, voiced by the afflicted...are they really mad?
Who is mad? Is it the commited or those who commit?
A novel of fiction, though centred on real people and events, Anna Vaught writes with a beautiful turn of phrase.
Take your time and read each page, savour the prose and take flight, join the birds that visit the mad. Perch on their arms and shoulders and stay a while.
A book very different to any I have read, and all the better for it. Highly recommended.