Psycho-Babble Books Thread 419248

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Anyone read Janet Frame

Posted by vwoolf on November 23, 2004, at 8:27:35

Has anyone read Janet Frame's autobiography? It sounds extraordinary, but I can't find a copy locally and want to know if it's worth sending away for.

 

Re: Anyone read Janet Frame » vwoolf

Posted by alexandra_k on November 23, 2004, at 16:02:10

In reply to Anyone read Janet Frame, posted by vwoolf on November 23, 2004, at 8:27:35

Yes indeed. Not only that but there is a film version called "an angel at my table". The book version was forced on me at school which put me off rather (unfortunately).

I would recommend "Faces in the Water" personally. Brilliant. A bit of insight into psychiatric institutions in New Zealand however many years ago. Conditions are better, but...

She is something of a New Zealand icon.

Another is Katherine Mansfield - brilliant, though she didn't suffer from mental illness I don't think.

 

Re: Anyone read Janet Frame » alexandra_k

Posted by vwoolf on November 24, 2004, at 10:23:27

In reply to Re: Anyone read Janet Frame » vwoolf, posted by alexandra_k on November 23, 2004, at 16:02:10

Thanks for that Alexandra. Inspired by your post, I have managed to find a second hand edition of her autobiographical trilogy and have started reading it. Wonderful Shakespearian imagery. I feel quite close to her, having been through the state mental hospital and shock therapy routine many years ago back in the sixties, but in South Africa. Very few people have managed to write adequately about the experience, which is of such extraodinary institutionalised violence. I feel a sense of overwhelming horror every time I read about it. In many ways the shock therapy was worse than the incest, or the marital abuse I am going through now. Only believing I had murdered my father is perhaps stronger.

 

Re: Anyone read Janet Frame » vwoolf

Posted by alexandra_k on November 24, 2004, at 17:56:37

In reply to Re: Anyone read Janet Frame » alexandra_k, posted by vwoolf on November 24, 2004, at 10:23:27

I should really read it too. I was thinking about it last night and I realised that I never actually read it - just watched the movie. I think we studied it for film rather than as a novel. Do tell me if it is good.


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