Member Review

It took me a while to work my way through this book. I couldn't envision the direction the story was going to take and that had my speed flagging. It would have been a big mistake to have stopped midway. The really impact of the tale comes at the end, when the revelation is made,and we can look back at the entirety of the tale in a sort of stunned understanding.

I have to repeat that I would have preferred it to be a more concise book but I have to give it four stars , if only because of the way it caught me off guard! This is the story of Edith Potter holed away in the middle of nowhere after the death of her father who was an eminent person in the field of Psychology. She lives under his shadow and seems to have a lot of trouble assimilating completely into her surroundings. There is sanity hidden behind random cracks of insanity in her life. She becomes catatonic and is placed in an asylum after a particular strange episode. Dr. Stephen Maynard then enters the picture.. He is trying to do some research on hypnosis/psychotherapy and ends up encountering her case. The fact that she comes from a very illustrious background makes her a prime patient for him(fame's sake).Unlike the other books I have read recently this does not have a dual time narration, and anything that seems complicated initially, gets clearer at the end. The people are very flawed, each in their own way. This does not make any particular person very lovable, but it's that sort of tale. 

It is neither a light or particularly happy read, but it is something remarkable!