Sharing Stories 2014 - Blurbs

Our Book Choices 

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2013 

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’ 

There are books you can’t stop reading, which keep you up all night.

There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real.

There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days. 

The Shock of the Fall is all of these books.

The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man’s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction.

Marbles - Ellen Forney

Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Suffering from (but enjoying) extreme mania, and terrified that medication would cause her to lose creativity, she began a long struggle over many years to find mental stability while retaining her creativity. Searching to make sense of the popular idea of the 'crazy artist', she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. 

She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to "cure" an otherwise brilliant mind.Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney's memoir provides a humorous but authentic glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist's work, as she shares her own story through black-and-white graphic images and prose.

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

Meet Don Tillman. 

Don is getting married. 

He just doesn't know who to yet. 

But he has designed a very detailed questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman. 

One thing he already knows, though, is that it's not Rosie. 

Absolutely, completely, definitely not.

Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healy

'Elizabeth is missing' reads the note in Maud's pocket in her own handwriting, and the one on the wall.
Maud's been getting forgetful. She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she's made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey, years back, just after the war.
A fast-paced mystery, an unforgettable voice: you will laugh and cry but you'll never forget Maud.

The Examined Life - Stephen Grosz

A Sunday Times bestseller

Longlisted for the Guardian first book award

A Radio 4 Book of the Week 

This book is about learning to live. 

In simple stories of encounter between a psychoanalyst and his patients, The Examined Life reveals how the art of insight can illuminate the most complicated, confounding and human of experiences.

These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but how we might find ourselves too.

Stranger than Kindness - Mark A Radcliffe

There is a fine line between madness and magic. It is 1989 and Community Care is about to reboot the industry of psychiatry. In a soon-to-be-closed asylum a bruised nurse, Adam Sands, is feeling less like a purveyor of kindness and more like a concentration camp guard with every passing drink. Years later Adam has got used to the quiet life when his past finds him. Maybe this time he can do some good. Even make a difference. But redemption, like magic, can come from the strangest of places.

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2014

JAN - FEB: The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

MAR - APR: Marbles - Ellen Forney

MAY - JUN: The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

JUL - AUG: Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healy

SEP - OCT: The Examined Life - Stephen Grosz

NOV - DEC: Stranger than Kindness - Mark A Radcliffe

2013

Feb: The Silver Linings Play Book - Matthew Quick 

Mar: The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson 

Apr: I had a black dog - Matthew Johnson 

May: Why be happy when you can be normal - Jeanette Winterson

Jun: Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan

Jul: 01 - Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes

Jul: 02 - Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Aug: Tender is the Night - F Scott Fitzgerald 

Sep: Day - A L Kennedy

Oct: Notes from an exhibition - Patrick Gale

Nov: A life too short - Ronald Reng 

Dec: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte  

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Sharing Stories 2014
Chat with Peter Bullimore 2013

Mental Health Reading Challenge 2013

Podcast with Tom at Arts and Minds Leeds 2013

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

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Full Table of Contents

Sharing Stories 2014

Leeds Book Club will be participating in the second Arts and Minds Network's Sharing Stories Project - to raise awareness of mental health; learning difficulties and autism through the use of fiction. 

Every two months, we'll read one of books listed below and pay special attention to descriptions, characters and plot that include those facing mental health issues. Hopefully, we will then take part in a vibrant discussion online, on social media and IRL at book clubs.

We'd be delighted to invite you to join us - if you'd like to offer a review of one (or more) of the books on the list, please drop me a line at leedsbookclub@gmail.com or via twitter (@leedsbookclub) or contact the ever-cheerful Tom via @ArtsMindsLeeds 

Where indicated, I’ll happily post blog posts anonymously – I appreciate that not everyone will want to discuss their personal reflections on a sensitive topic on a public forum like this. Obviously, on the other hand, I'll also include links to twitter names, your blogs and so on if so desired.

Also, read any books that feature mental health? Then let us know - the good, the bad and the ugly!

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2014

JAN & FEB: The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

MAR & APR: Marbles - Ellen Forney

MAY & JUN: The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

JUL & AUG: Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healy

SEP & OCT: The Examined Life - Stephen Grosz

NOV & DEC: Stranger than Kindness - Mark A Radcliffe

2013

Feb: The Silver Linings Play Book - Matthew Quick 

Mar: The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson 

Apr: I had a black dog - Matthew Johnson 

May: Why be happy when you can be normal - Jeanette Winterson

Jun: Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan

Jul: 01 - Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes

Jul: 02 - Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Aug: Tender is the Night - F Scott Fitzgerald 

Sep: Day - A L Kennedy

Oct: Notes from an exhibition - Patrick Gale

Nov: A life too short - Ronald Reng 

Dec: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte  

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Sharing Stories 2014
Chat with Peter Bullimore 2013

Mental Health Reading Challenge 2013

Podcast with Tom at Arts and Minds Leeds 2013

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

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Full Table of Contents

Sharing Stories - Notes from an Exhibition - GUEST

Leeds Book Club has been participating in the Arts and Minds Network's 2013 project on raising awareness of mental health issues. 

Now Fiona actually provided me with this MONTHS ago and it was lost in the wilderness that is my email inbox, languishing, wilting for lack of attention. I'm so glad that this review has finally found it's place in the sun as it's fantastic! Huge thanks to @MindFiona

NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION

PATRICK GALE

BLURB (from Amazon)

From the author of A Perfectly Good Man, the bestselling story of an artist tormented by depression and the toll of creativity.

When troubled artist Rachel Kelly dies she leaves behind an extraordinary body of work – but for her family there is a legacy of secrets and painful revelations.

Rachel exerts a power that outlives her. To her children she is both curse and blessing, as they cope with the inheritance of her passions – and demons. Only their father's gift of stillness can withstand Rachel’s destructive influence and the suspicion that they all came a poor second to her art.

Piecing together the clues of her life – as artist, lover, mother, wife and patient – takes the reader from Cornwall to Canada across a span of forty years. What emerges is a tender story of enduring love, and a portrait of a family coping with the sometimes too dazzling brilliance of a genius.

When I volunteered to review one of the Sharing Stories books I ended up picking one that I knew nothing about. As the subject matter was quite heavy, I might not normally have chosen to read it. So it was with some trepidation that I started reading ‘Notes from an Exhibition’.

I was expecting to struggle through the book, however I found couldn’t put it down. 

The focus of the story is Rachel Kelly, an artist, her husband Anthony, and their children, Garfield, Morwenna, Heldley, and Petroc. Rachel suffers from bi-polar disorder and much of the story focuses on the tangle of her that, her art and family and the shifting pressures of them all. Though Rachel has the greatest share of the narrative, the story is seen from the perspective of all of the family members. Each chapter is prefaced with an ‘interpretation card’ from a posthumous exhibition of her works and items from her life -Hence, notes from an exhibition.

The book begins with Rachel at the end of her life and about to embark on a series of paintings we later learn are some of her greatest works. From there, the book follows the aftermath of her death for her husband and now grown-up children, whilst flashing back to significant points in all of their lives. I quite liked the structure. At first I found it a little disorientating but by the end appreciated the different perspectives. 

They rounded out the characters and showed the differences between how they behaved and how they felt. I also felt it gave the book more of a sense of hope. All the ‘notes’ say who donated which item in the exhibition, and the fact that the donors were able and willing to contribute is promising. 

The family isn't always a particularly likeable one; as individuals they are all flawed in some way, and all struggle to communicate with one another. Though Rachel undoubtedly loves her children, 

‘art was the one thing that stilled and focused her  impossibly restless personality; art won through where her family failed.’ 

Though art offers her respite, but it is occasionally her focus over everything else. She herself isn't sure of her motivation for coming off her medication whilst pregnant. It exposes her to a greater chance of post-partum depression but 

‘the glorious ascent before the fall and the work she could achieve in climbing made it worthwhile. Perhaps.’ 

She can be quite cruel at times; the incident on Morwenna’s tenth birthday stands out. However it is counterbalanced by chapters told from Rachel’s perspective. Though she herself admits she isn't always kind (‘she ignored him, and used to it, poor sod, he went away’) these chapters gave me more of an insight to the fragility she feels. 

One part that stood out for me was the account of a costume ball that Rachel attends with her friend/doctor Jack. She has finally been diagnosed, in part because of the support from Jack, and the (admittedly imperfect) sense of relief she feels really struck me 

‘She was not mad. She had a chemical imbalance that was controllable.’

The book isn't an easy ride, but I found it was worth it. I felt it gave me more insight into the complexities of living with mental illness. Gale presents all of the character’s as complex individuals, complete with flaws and virtues. As ‘Notes from an Exhibition’ made me want to read more by Gale I would definitely recommend it to others.

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Chat with Peter Bullimore
Mental Health Reading Challenge
Blurbs for the books!


Podcast with Tom at Arts and Minds Leeds

The List

Feb: The Silver Linings Play Book - Matthew Quick 

Mar: The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson 

Apr: I had a black dog - Matthew Johnson 

May: Why be happy when you can be normal - Jeanette Winterson

Jun: Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan

Jul: 01 - Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes

Jul: 02 - Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Aug: Tender is the Night - F Scott Fitzgerald 

Sep: Day - A L Kennedy

Oct: Notes from an exhibition - Patrick Gale

Nov: A life too short - Ronald Reng 

Dec: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

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Full Table of Contents

Sharing Stories - Tender is the Night - GUEST

Leeds Book Club will be participating in the Arts and Minds Network's new project on raising awareness of mental health issues. 

This cracking review is provided to us by regular book clubber, blogger and all round fabulous human being - @Becca_Lou18

TENDER IS THE NIGHT

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

BLURB (from Amazon)

In the wake of World War I, a community of expatriate American writers established itself in the salons and cafes of 1920s Paris. They congregated at Gertrude Stein's select soirees, drank too much, married none too wisely, and wrote volumes--about the war, about the Jazz Age, and often about each other. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, were part of this gang of literary Young Turks, and it was while living in France that Fitzgerald began writing Tender Is the Night. Begun in 1925, the novel was not actually published until 1934. By then, Fitzgerald was back in the States and his marriage was on the rocks, destroyed by Zelda's mental illness and alcoholism. Despite the modernist mandate to keep authors and their creations strictly segregated, it's difficult not to look for parallels between Fitzgerald's private life and the lives of his characters, psychiatrist Dick Diver and his former patient turned wife, Nicole. Certainly the hospital in Switzerland where Zelda was committed in 1929 provided the inspiration for the clinic where Diver meets, treats, and then marries the wealthy Nicole Warren. And Fitzgerald drew both the European locale and many of the characters from places and people he knew from abroad.In the novel, Dick is eventually ruined--professionally, emotionally, and spiritually--by his union with Nicole. Fitzgerald's fate was not quite so novelistically neat: after Zelda was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and committed, Fitzgerald went to work as a Hollywood screenwriter in 1937 to pay her hospital bills. He died three years later - not melodramatically, like poor Jay Gatsby in his swimming pool, but prosaically, while eating a chocolate bar and reading a newspaper. Of all his novels,Tender Is the Night is arguably the one closest to his heart. As he himself wrote, "Gatsby was a tour de force, but this is a confession of faith." 

The first time I tried to read Tender is the Night I gave up. I’d previously read The Great Gatsby and I loved Fitzgerald’s writing style but found the characters slightly lacking (perhaps this is intentional by Fitzgerald to reflect the glamorous but ultimately shallow society they embodied). Knowing that Tender is the Night has semi-autobiographical elements I had high hopes that it would have much more depth in its characters. Despite me desperately wanting to enjoy it, I struggled to make any progress. When LeedsBookClub mentioned that it was one of the books on the mental health reading list I asked if I could review it – possibly the motivation of reviewing the book would help me power through and get it read.

So it was with slightly mixed feelings that I picked up Tender is the Night for a second time (this time on Kindle) back in June (giving myself plenty of time in case it was a slog). This time I didn’t struggle quite so much. Although I vaguely recollected the main plot points, oddly it felt like reading the story from fresh and I was pleasantly surprised by how much easier I found it to get into.

Tender is the Night is centred on the relationship of Dick and Nicole Diver, a beautiful young couple who everyone wants to be around. We are first introduced to the Divers through Rosemary, a stunning young actress fresh from her first film who is visiting the French Riviera with her mother. 

Straight away it is clear that anyone who is anyone wants to be friends with the Divers, who hold their court on the beach by day and by invitation to their villa by night. They are what make the Riviera a place worth being. Rosemary soon finds herself brought into the fold, becoming fast friends with Nicole and completely in love with Dick. Although the Divers’ lives appear perfect it is clear there are cracks in their relationship and one night at a party at the Divers’ villa, a guest witnesses an  “incident” in the bathroom, suggesting that things aren’t quite how the Divers make out. 

The book is split into three parts with the second part detailing the background of the Divers and how they met (there is also a version of the book with events in chronological order). We discover that Nicole, abused by her father, was admitted to a clinic in Switzerland as a teenager. There she meets Dick, a poor but talented psychiatrist visiting the clinic, and quickly forms an attachment. 

Seeing this as an opportunity to assist her recovery, Nicole is encouraged to write letters to Dick after he leaves. When Dick eventually returns he realises that he has fallen in love with Nicole, becoming both her carer and husband. When Nicole’s father dies, she and her sister, Baby, inherit his fortune and it is this which allows the Divers to fund their lavish lifestyle. Despite their luxurious life on the Riviera, Dick is keen to return to his research and Nicole and Baby agree to fund setting up his own clinic. For a time all seems well with the family living at the clinic but it soon becomes apparent that Nicole’s mental health is deteriorating and Dick is drinking far more than he used to. 

This comes to a head when Nicole attempts to crash the family’s car on the way back from a family outing. Dick’s business partner convinces him to take a sabbatical and he returns to America for his father’s funeral. On his return to Europe Dick crosses paths with Rosemary. Although she is now older and wiser, no longer holding Dick in the high regard she once did, they quickly start an affair. 

Dick continues to spiral into alcoholism, resenting Nicole and her family for making him feel like a kept man. Nicole, no longer able to see Dick as anything other than her doctor is seduced by Tommy, part of the Riviera set, who has always had a thing for her. Eventually Nicole is faced with an ultimatum – her husband or her lover. 

I felt that there was much more depth to the characters in this than in Gatsby. Fitzgerald very much focuses on the dynamic between Dick and Nicole. Their romance was born out of Nicole’s illness and at times she struggles to separate her husband and lover from her doctor and carer. Eventually this leads to the demise of their marriage as Nicole feels she no longer needs the support that Dick has always represented. Nicole is central to the story yet a complete enigma to the reader. We never really know her motivations, seeing her only through the eyes of others (namely Dick and Rosemary). Everyone treats her as fragile, not least her overbearing sister Baby (I imagine her as Katharine Hepburn-esque), who cannot accept that any man, let alone a poor doctor, could be good enough for her little sister. Nicole’s eventual decision between Dick and Tommy signifies how much she has grown as a person. It is not clear whether she has really recovered from her schizophrenia but her decision marks her own belief in herself and her ability to conduct a relationship that is not, in part, based on her mental frailty.

Dick could be viewed as a romantic hero who saves Nicole from a clinic, giving her the opportunity to love and live in the real world; or an unscrupulous doctor who marries his patient for her money then succumbs to alcoholism. To me, Dick is a little bit of both but on the whole I found myself rooting for him. I desperately wanted things to work out between him and Nicole (though I admit that I am a complete romantic) and I found that I resented Rosemary for the part she might have played in the disintegration of the Divers’ relationship. However, this is perhaps unfair on Rosemary whose affair with Dick, despite her best efforts, only really starts when his relationship with Nicole has already passed the point of no return. I think at times Fitzgerald’s characters are difficult to grasp and can be somewhat lost in his grandiose prose. Yet I found I felt far more strongly about these characters than in Gatsby. Dick and Nicole present themselves to the world as a perfect power couple and yet both are battling their demons but do so alone. Although Dick’s alcoholism appears very much polite to the modern reader (though possibly more shocking at the time of publication) it is clear that it alienates him from his former friends. 

Despite being published in 1934 I felt that overall the writing had aged well and had a contemporary feel. There were some references that reflected its time – for example references to “negros” and Dick’s patients including a homosexual man (homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in 1973). I found the prose beautifully descriptive, sometimes completely absorbing but at others it completely washed over me like a wave and I struggled to grasp the story. I found it easy to picture the setting of the French coastline and Swiss clinic. Fitzgerald is brilliant at capturing the essence of his settings and I found myself longing to visit the south of France. However, I found that I had to really concentrate at times to keep with the thread of the story and this made reading in busy places such as my train to work difficult. It’s not easy to pick the book straight back up – I often had to refresh where I was in order to get back into it.

It goes without saying that mental health features strongly in this book, with a good proportion of the story set in mental health clinics. This was a very different era of mental health. Psychology was still a reasonably new field. Nicole is said to be schizophrenic, brought on by the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Mental illness is complex and not well understood even now but I can’t help but wonder if modern doctors would view this as a cause of Nicole’s condition. In some cases Dick and his colleagues are simply exploiting the rich, treating their children but taking a dim view of whether there is actually anything wrong with them. Of all his patients, the one Dick takes a personal interest in is the “woman with the scabs” who is not just a rich kid but has a genuine illness. 

This exploitation on the part of the clinics is probably a reflection of Fitzgerald’s own experiences with clinics through the treatment of his wife, Zelda. Fitzgerald often struggled to pay for his wife’s treatment, borrowing money from friends as well as writing short stories as a means of paying clinic fees. It is likely that Tender is the Night is a fairly accurate picture of treatment in the 1920s. 

Zelda, like Nicole, was schizophrenic and it is very easy to draw comparisons between the Divers and the Fitzgeralds. Fitzgerald was not financially secure enough to be accepted by Zelda’s family as an appropriate suitor for their daughter, possibly captured in the novel by Baby’s dislike of Dick. Fitzgerald was also an alcoholic and as with Dick, spiralled into alcoholism before reaching his full potential. 

Whilst in Tender is the Night Dick fades away and Nicole finds happiness with her new life, the fate of the Fitzgeralds was an altogether darker affair. Scott died aged 44 from a heart attack, no doubt in part caused by his heavy drinking. Zelda tragically died in a fire at the hospital she was being treated at – she was locked in her room awaiting electroshock therapy for her mental illness.

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Chat with Peter Bullimore
Mental Health Reading Challenge
Blurbs for the books!

Podcast with Tom at Arts and Minds Leeds

Write Up's
Dec - Jane Eyre - GUEST
Nov - A life too short - GUEST
Oct - Notes from an exhibition - GUEST
Sep - Day - GUEST
Aug - Tender is the Night - GUEST
Jul - Ariel - GUEST
Jul - Birthday Letters - GUEST
Jun - Poppy Shakespeare - GUEST
May - Why be happy when you can be normal - GUEST
Apr - I had a black dog - GUEST
Mar - The Psychopath Test - GUEST
Feb - The Silver Linings Play Book - GUEST

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

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Full Table of Contents

Sharing Stories Book Club/ Meet up!

 Venue:   Giraffe Bar and Grill

Date:    Tuesday 15th of October 2012

Time:    6pm - 8pm

Address: 6 Greek Street, Leeds, LS1 5RW

Tel:     (0113) 244 1500

As the man himself (that's you Tom) puts it, our meeting in October is:

A chance to discuss books in a friendly group. 

For the last few months Arts & Minds have been promoting a book every month that has some link to mental health. 

In this special partnership with Leeds Book Club (that's us!) we are encouraging everyone to come along and talk about the books. 

The book we are particularly focusing on is ‘Notes from an Exhibition’ by Patrick Gale. This novel tells the story of an artist with mental health issues and the family she leaves behind.

“By the end I had laughed and cried and put all his other books on my wish list. This is dense, thought-provoking, sensitive, satisfying, humorous, humane – a real treat.”
Daily Telegraph. 

So get reading and see you there!

If you're interested in finding out what we've made of our previous #SharingStories, check out the links below! 

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Chat with Peter Bullimore
Mental Health Reading Challenge
Blurbs for the books!

Podcast with Tom at Arts and Minds Leeds

Write Up's
Dec - Jane Eyre - GUEST
Nov - A life too short - GUEST
Oct - Notes from an exhibition - GUEST
Sep - Day - GUEST
Aug - Tender is the Night - GUEST
Jul - Ariel - GUEST
Jul - Birthday Letters - GUEST
Jun - Poppy Shakespeare - GUEST
May - Why be happy when you can be normal - GUEST
Apr - I had a black dog - GUEST
Mar - The Psychopath Test - GUEST
Feb - The Silver Linings Play Book - GUEST

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

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Full Table of Contents

Sharing Stories Podcast

Leeds Book Club will be participating in the Arts and Minds Network's new project on raising awareness of mental health issues. 

LBC is joined this week by Tom of @ArtsMindsLeeds to discuss #SharingStories.

 

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Chat with Peter Bullimore
Mental Health Reading Challenge
Blurbs for the books!

Podcast with Tom at Arts and Minds Leeds

Write Up's
Dec - Jane Eyre - GUEST
Nov - A life too short - GUEST
Oct - Notes from an exhibition - GUEST
Sep - Day - GUEST
Aug - Tender is the Night - GUEST
Jul - Ariel - GUEST
Jul - Birthday Letters - GUEST
Jun - Poppy Shakespeare - GUEST
May - Why be happy when you can be normal - GUEST
Apr - I had a black dog - GUEST
Mar - The Psychopath Test - GUEST
Feb - The Silver Linings Play Book - GUEST

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

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Full Table of Contents