Rating: 
Summary: Interesting psychologial study stops short of compelling
Review: The premise of "Asylum" is fascinating, and from the start I expected a great psycho-sexual thriller. But the novel turned out to be surprisingly tame. I kept waiting for something to happen; all the action seemed to take place in slow-motion. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, and we gradually discover that the real action is taking place in the minds of the characters. Maybe that's what McGrath had in mind. But except for a crucial scene on a school-field trip, the novel never achieves a level of urgency. Ultimatey we're left with a character study of varying levels of insanity, self-absorption and self-destruction. Each character suffers in his or her own way from some mental impairment or ulterior motive -- no one is completely honest or "normal," which makes for interesting reading. But in the end, I wasn't sure why Stella loved Edgar so, why she was ready to sacrifice everything for him. The author tells us how wild she is for him, rather than showing us (other than her willingness to take extreme risks). The answer seems to lie with Stella herself -- Edgar just happens to be the vessel into which she pours her emotions, frustration and rage (an unfortunate choice, being that he's a psychotic murderer). You get the feeling Stella could have taken a different path, but she would inevitably ended up in the same place sooner or later.
Rating: 
Summary: An intriquing web of deceit and lies
Review: Patrick McGrath has certainly found a way to accopmlish truth in fiction. His characters are passionared flags, the psychiatrist's wife is determined to fulfill her desires with a man who she should know is far beneath her reach. The affair is steamy, and forbidden, but she grabs it like a life line and doesn't let go. Her mistake costs her marriage, family, and sanity. And, at the end, we are not sure who most deserved the psch ward "penthouse suite."
Rating: 
Summary: Never Gothic; Only Lugubrious
Review: Upon completing "Asylum", we are left to wonder whether Patrick McGrath forgot - or ever knew - how to write fiction. The question isn't so much whether "Asylum" is a good novel, worthy of being read, shared and discussed; instead, it's whether "Asylum" ever should have been published to begin with. While some may mistake McGrath's lugubrious prose for gothic atmosphere, it is merely plodding and, ultimately, thoughtless. In order to construct a novel, the author must employ plot (which generally arises from some central conflict) and character development; sadly, McGrath fails miserably in both areas. McGrath clearly believes sufficient conflict comes from the "morbid obsessional sexual compulsion" about which he writes ad nauseum, and we have to admit that there is something vaguely interesting (and disquieting) about a story centered on an asylum psychiatrist's nymphomaniacal wife and her affair with a murderously paranoid internee. "Asylum" tries to be more, however, in its transparent "study" of a woman's descent into madness. By using a male psychiatrist's narrative voice, McGrath avoids the pitfall of a man writing a woman's point-of-view (and missing it), but he ultimately destroys this ingenious device by masking his narrator's unreliability until the final chapters of the book. Most distressing about "Asylum" is the complete absence of any character with any likeable qualities. Stella is a selfish, promiscuous, sloppy drunk; husband Max is a spineless, whining simp - even when faced with the emotional destruction of his 10-year-old son, Charlie - whipped by his overbearing and manipulative mother (Brenda) and cuckolded by his wife. Stella's attraction to the decidedly mad Edgar (the only interesting, if ultimately unredeemable, character in the book) isn't so much incomprehensible as it is unexplained. The minor characters (Nick, Edgar's dirty and somewhat dim sidekick; Trevor Williams, the sullen, hard "barnyard Lothario", and his equally sullen and hard wife, Mair) all are only cardboard back-droppings around, over and into which Stella steps. Even Charlie, for whom our sympathies ultimately are played, is incompletely and poorly drawn. It is difficult to grow to love this young boy, who is absent throughout half of the book, especially when the first impression McGrath gives us of him is as "an overweight little boy with pale skin" and "two rabbity front teeth." Without plot and absent sympathetic characters, "Asylum" becomes little more than an exercise in literary masturbation for the author and a dark and depressing waste of time for the reader.
Rating:
Summary: It is well-put sexual details about 2 disturbed people.
Review: This book tells the ups and downs in great detail about the affair with an insane man and a naive woman. I feel the book was great because it gives so much detail, yet it leaves some things to the imagination. I encourage everyone to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great gothic psychological thriller!!!!
Review: A great novel about sexual obsession and how it can destroy lives. Stella's journey that McGrath takes us through is riveting and amazing. There were some very interesting twists that i did not see coming, and i enjoyed the whole gothic feel of the book-the lonlieness, the cold, the isolation, the large victorian homes void of love, etc.. I look forward to reading other novels by this talented author!!
Rating:
Summary: compelling read
Review: This is a very dark read, and also an interesting look at the madness that can occur with intensely felt love. Very well-written and totally engrossing. I understand a film is in the works, starring Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson.
Rating: 
Summary: Stupid,boring,old.
Review: I had red that this book was full of suspance.But I lost my time.It's not interesting,nothing surprised me,the final is stupid.And the characters are not realistic.
Rating:
Summary: A insight of the artistic temperament
Review: McGrath's Asylum did not merely bring out the internal struggle so often felt by repressed beings,it did an enormous job of probing into the mind of Edgar Stark as an artist burdend with paranoia and depressive illness, among other mental disorders so frequently associated with creativity. It will have you hooked as McGrath explores each character from the psychological point of view.
Rating:
Summary: started out well, but...
Review: I have to admit that "Asylum" was a fairly engrossing read when I first picked it up, but by mid-novel, I was tired of it, and could not wait for it to end. It is hard to sympathise with the characters, and no reasons were made clear either about certain actions that they undertook. If "Asylum" attempts to read into the minds of people, it doesn't quite achieve its goals very well. That said, McGrath writes rather well, and the book is still readable, although sadly anti-climactic.
Rating:
Summary: A Most Unremarkable Book
Review: I read 60 pages of Asylum, skimmed another 60 pages and read the last two pages to see if I had missed anything. I didn't. In fact, this female reader was terribly disappointed and didn't find Stella a convincing, sympathetic or unsympathetic character. The story idea of Asylum is compelling but the writing was far from it. Stella is a stereotype of a bored housewife who has a sexual escapade (calling it obsession is too glamorous) with a psychotic man. McGrath's chronicling of Stella's relationship with Edgar--how an average person mentally unravels when she has a sexual relationship with a homicidal maniac--is flat and unconvincing. None of the characters was remarkable. In short, Asylum is vacuous at best.
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