Asylum

Rating:
Summary: Great Psychobabble
Review: A finely written psychological horror novel filled with wonderful psychobabble. Two fantastic traits about this book:

- The Freudian slant that constantly pervades the book. I never got tired of it. Every little action had so many dissections and possibilities.

- The seemingly reliable but ultimately unreliable narrator. I hope that isn't too much of a spoiler, though it's telegraphed fairly well by the middle of the book. Echoes of Poe, definitely.

I found the mad love between Edgar and Stella to be very real and very British -- all that social caste stuff fit right in with all the repression that was going on. The book never slowed down for a second, and I don't see a single thing wrong with it.

I read that Stephen King fell in love with this book so much that he adapted it for a screenplay, so expect it to come to a theater near you. There's a movie called Asylum coming out later this year (2001), I think, but that's not it. Rumor has it that this one will be starring Liam Neeson and his wife Natasha Richardson, directed by Jonathan Demme. I suppose Neeson will play Edgar the psychopathic sculptor and Richarson will play Stella the psychopathic mother; good choices. For Max, I see a slight bookish fellow -- can't think of one. Anthony Hopkins would be my man as Peter, the narrator.

- SJW

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Macabre
Review: It took me longer than usual to finish this book, but I think that is due more to the ever-increasing pace of my life, and less to the writing style. Anyway...

In Asylum, Patrick McGrath imparts the tale of Stella and her lunatic lover, Edgar and the chaos and mental illness that come from their furtive trysts. This is a macabre novel but wonderfully so, and to say that it is Gothic is an understatement!

The pace of the novel mirrors Stella's mental state. Slow at first, growing slowly to a terrible crechendo, and crashing back down. I still can't wrap my mind around the ending, and I am tempted to reread Asylum to try and figure it all out.

Highly recommended for fans of the Gothic!

Rating:
Summary: If Henry James, Evelyn Waugh, and Edgar Allen Poe ---
Review: --ever collaborated on a novel, Asylum" might result. The novel is strange yet straightforward, lyrical yet precise, passionate yet unforgiving. The locales are partners to the story, not static scenery. The blossoming of obsession takes place in lush, bloom bursting central England with a brooding asylum amidst this riot of growth and sun. The earthiness, wild passion, and disassociation happen in the seediest, scummiest part of London. The breaking down and the dissolution are surrounded by wet, desolate Wales.

This is Stella's book. All that takes place is dependent upon her responses, beauty, ruttishness, and clinical depression. Yet "Asylum" is not claustrophobic. Her husband, lover, son and narrator are well-drawn, stand-alone characters. But they are there because of Stella and have no meaning without her.

"Asylum" is a freight train speeding down a mountain to a shuddering crash in the valley. And then there is a great stillness, and the reader shakes his head, still dazed, and says, "Is it over?"

I recommend "Asylum" without reservation. It is well-crafted literature.

Rating:
Summary: well described craziness can make you feel crazy!
Review: Some friends and I picked this book to read for a book dicussion group. I thought maybe it would be dark and haunting in a kind of spooky way, like Shirley Jackson's "House on Haunted Hill" and so forth. I was disappointed on that end, but that doesn't mean this isn't a very well written book.

The main thing that struck me about this book was that its entirely accurate picture of what a depressive state can do to one's mind and attitudes about things happening in their life is contagious; I walked away from this book feeling incredibly depressed! Maybe I empathize too much, but I found the feelings depicted here to be very accurate, so maybe that makes the book a little more educational.

One of the very good things about this book is the narrator; I particularly liked that aspect. Overall, a very well written book but perhaps too dark in a realistic way for some people.

Rating:
Summary: Moody
Review: Somewhat Gothic, somewhat Victorian, "Asylum" is a darkly entertaining story of relationships made and broken among the asylum's psychiatrist, his wife and a murderous patient. It's a moody, pensive book, full of imagery and foreshadowing (maybe a little heavy-handed at times). As other reviewers have pointed out, the plot is driven by Stella and her struggle, although Max and Edgar are both effective as supporting characters. McGrath succeeds in building suspense and dread toward a compelling ending. This book won't change the world, but it's worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: It's all about Stella
Review: As a gothic horror story, "Asylum" succeeds on the level of its atmospheric intensity. However, the brooding sense of foreboding that just builds and builds doesn't quite lead anywhere. In the absence of any discernable climax to the plot, the reader experiences none of the cathartic release he expects from the denouement in a novel of this genre. The subject is clearly Stella, the psychiatrist's (Max's) wife. The other characters are just wallpaper and background noise. Whether intended or not, the author has left me with the impression that her fatal obsession with Edgar, the hospital's murderously dangerous patient, has in fact nothing to do with Edgar. Edgar is simply the catalyst for the release of Stella's pent up frustration and hatred for her dead emotional life with Max. It could well have been anyone else. The disappointment is that Edgar started off as a fascinating Hannibal Lector type character until McGrath lost interest in him midway and decided to write him out of the plot. Well, almost. You keep waiting and waiting for his return but he doesn't quite show up. The use of Peter as first person narrator is, on the other hand, an eerily effective technical devise. You keep guessing at his possible entanglement in the whole sordid business and this works wonders in keeping up the suspense. Whatever the novel's shortcomings, McGrath makes up for the small disappointment of its underwhelming ending with his spellbinding way with words. He is such an accomplished writer I would gladly read anything by him anyday. His prose is smoooth as silk and always magnificently crafted. Not quite the stunner I expected but still, a worthy and enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: Persuasive and Compelling
Review: A remarkable novel in that it is singularly persuasive yet completely unlikely to happen. What unfolds in Asylum consumes the reader and yet is, at the same time, utterly unlikely. I think that is what makes this story so impressive. There is also a layering to the story that is not really subtle but fun to absorb. I thought the book was incredible. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: A very well written pseudo psychoanalysis of the dynamics of obsessive love. Asylum explores the pathos of obsession by way of a female character (Stella) that falls in love with a patient in the mental institution where her husband is positioned to become the next superintendent. McGrath does an excellent job of exploring the "at all cost" behavior of the obsessed. From a lifeless marriage to a life-threatening affair, Stella ends up without love, passion or security. The destruction of her life slowly unfolds, leaving the reader guessing what will happen next and exactly how far she will take an affair that most sane people would have realized as dangerous, partially fulfilling, at best, and extremely short-term.

Asylum is a real treat for readers who are really into character analysis. McGrath places the reader in the mind of the characters as the novel unfolds. The prose is fluid, the story informative, and the experience memorable. This reader was quite impressed with McGrath's work and looks forward to future novels.

Rating:
Summary: award winning material
Review: I cannot disagree with Mr. Russell Spencer more. I read this book over a flight-delayed trip to Baltimore two winters ago. The book was purchased as a timekiller and without expectation in the literature section of a St. Louis airport bookstore. Literature is appropriate to describe this novel. I will refrain myself from referring to review by the afore mentioned reviewer. It will be hard.

It was 2am when the plane finally arrived home and I was about 50 pages from finishing the book. I knew I needed to be at work the following morning and decided that I would finish the book later. That was until I hit the climax. As the plane taxied to the gate, I knew I would finish the book without sleep that night (don't read the Kirkus review or Mr. Spencer's review if you haven't read the book, even though the Kirkus review is good and shows some smarts).

McGrath has to have seen something like the experience that he describes at the heath (or the "bog" as described by others) in order to write about this climax so purely. Very, very gripping.

With all of the gothic stylization (which is rich) and the value of the spoken word by characters that the narrator purposefully doesn't evaluate (as the reader will see later) and the masterful depiction of what "Asylum" really means, McGrath keeps your attention to shocking final end.

I won't use all those big useless words that some people think are necessary in writing an "intelligent" review. Personally, I wouldn't want to spend my valuable time writing about something I think is trite. Characters are exactly what they should be. Not any more engrosing than they need to be or should be.

This book has it. You just have to get it, and some people, fortunately I guess, just don't get it.

Rating:
Summary: Stop here!
Review: I haven't finished this book yet, but I'm enjoying it and I thought I'd look at some reviews- BIG mistake. I thought we weren't supposed to divulge the plot! Those of you who haven't read this book yet, should take care not to read Russell M. Spencer's "review", in which he reveals most of the plot- VERY annoying! I was turning those pages to found out what happens- no need to bother now. Thanks a lot Russell!