It’s rare that I don’t finish a book. Even when I realised that a book (in this case, Bounce*) was beyond my post-birth intellect, I’d mark the page and start again once the fog had lifted. I have a feeling that this particular book, Grace Williams would still be Saying it Loud by my bedside in fifteen years if that were the case. It just didn’t gel.
I don’t think I ever really got over the horror of the way that the disabled were treated in days of yore, and thus I was never really able to get into the book or to develop an attachment to the characters. The saddest thing for me is that the writer, Emma Henderson, based her first novel on the experience her sister had whilst institutionalised. That she was able to portray the horror that an utter lack of understanding and compassion can lead to so clearly that I was unable to finish the book is testament to her writing skills.
I’m hoping I’ll fare better with next month’s Love a Book read.
*which, incidentally, is a fascinating read with a really interesting hypothesis. Particularly if you are a parent.
You have been left with all the bad stuff now though. You need to go back at some point and see how her latter years were much more positive and independent (to a certain extent).
It was really hard to bear witness to though. I think it is the TV Bookclub discussion of it next week, I wonder how they’ll get on with it.
Thanks for joining in, I’ve hooked you up on the new site: http://www.loveabook.co.uk/2011/08/july-book-review-grace-williams-says-it-loud/
Cara x
I’m sure I shall a some point: perhaps when I have teengaers and am less liable to blub at the unspeakable things other people can do to children…..Thanks for linking me up!