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Scar
Dermot Fallon has a disease. Currently hospitalized in Vancouver, he recreates with lunatic clarity the circumstances surrounding his recent trip to Ireland to bury his father, and his own schizophrenic breakdown. Pursued by the past – that of his family and a nation, as well as his own – he in turn pursues Fiona, his cousin’s fiancée, even as reality fragments into nightmare in the tangled tripwires of his brain. Told from Dermot’s own perspective with extensive notes by his psychiatrist, Scar is a powerful meditation on death, love, loss, identity, family and the terrifying ecstasy of madness.
300 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 3, 2014
There are some things I really loved about this book.. and things I didn't like so much at all..
In places, the writing is exquisite. The turns of phrase and descriptions are very well done - at times delicate and elusive, and dark and harsh at others. But always well done. The narrative is terribly complex and interwoven quite well. There's a wonderful mix of mythology, symbolism, psychology, and story. All the things I absolutely love about a novel...
But there were things I didn't like so well at all. There was extensive use of font and footnotes that was distracting. I understand what the author was trying to do with them, and I appreciate what was trying to be wrought, but I'm not entirely certain how well it worked. I found myself glossing over many of the more innovative parts, pretty much making them irrelevant. As for the footnotes, they wavered between on point and professional (as they are ostensibly done by an attending psychiatrist) and totally familiar and crass. The best I could make of it was that at some point the reader is meant to question if the actual subject of the novel is Dermot at all.. if it isn't actually the author of the footnotes who is the patient. In which case the novel succeeds and fails by turns.
There were other aspects that distracted, but these suffice. For all this, though, the underlying story was interesting and enough that I finished the book. Would I recommend it to the casual reader? Probably not. The select few? Likely.
In places, the writing is exquisite. The turns of phrase and descriptions are very well done - at times delicate and elusive, and dark and harsh at others. But always well done. The narrative is terribly complex and interwoven quite well. There's a wonderful mix of mythology, symbolism, psychology, and story. All the things I absolutely love about a novel...
But there were things I didn't like so well at all. There was extensive use of font and footnotes that was distracting. I understand what the author was trying to do with them, and I appreciate what was trying to be wrought, but I'm not entirely certain how well it worked. I found myself glossing over many of the more innovative parts, pretty much making them irrelevant. As for the footnotes, they wavered between on point and professional (as they are ostensibly done by an attending psychiatrist) and totally familiar and crass. The best I could make of it was that at some point the reader is meant to question if the actual subject of the novel is Dermot at all.. if it isn't actually the author of the footnotes who is the patient. In which case the novel succeeds and fails by turns.
There were other aspects that distracted, but these suffice. For all this, though, the underlying story was interesting and enough that I finished the book. Would I recommend it to the casual reader? Probably not. The select few? Likely.
December 14, 2011
Wow! What an interesting read. This book goes into the mind of a schizophrenic and it digs deep. Dermot is in the midst of a schizophrenic breakdown and Ryan Frawley writes every detail of this process. This is a very complex written piece of work. I have never read a book written in this type of format that weaves in and out of the character's mind. This is like no other book that I have ever read and I look forward to the author's next adventure in writing. I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
February 4, 2018
I ended up only getting a few pages in. It just didn't hold my attention and since it was a library book I had to return it.
September 3, 2020
DNF
I really couldn't get into this one, didn't like the writing style at all. I did try reading it, but I got to chapter 16 and I couldn't read anymore.
I really couldn't get into this one, didn't like the writing style at all. I did try reading it, but I got to chapter 16 and I couldn't read anymore.
May 26, 2012
“After that, I started seeing things. Just movement, at first, in the corner of my eye, and when you turn to see what it is, it’s gone. I mean, I think everyone gets that sometimes. I got it a lot. Then—it’s weird—you start to imagine what they are, men or monsters, whatever, and then that’s what you see. You know it’s at least partly your own imagination, but you can’t stop it, and once you’ve put a face to this faceless thing, that’s what it is, and always was, and no amount of logic will stop you from seeing it.”
***
Scar, Ryan Frawley’s literary fiction debut, tells a fractured narrative from the perspective of a young man, who also happens to be schizophrenic. Dermot Fallon, an English-born descendent of Irish ancestors, is hospitalized in Vancouver, BC, following a severe schizophrenic breakdown. Narrated from a first-person point-of-view, as fractured and disingenuous as it often is, Scar attempts to unfold the many layers of Dermot Fallon’s psychological imbalances.
This will be short, mostly because I’ve been unable to finish the book. In fact, this is the second title I’ve walked away from this year (for everyone at home keeping score). It’s not that Dermot’s story is uninteresting. Far from it—the mosaic of possibilities, of pathways and divergences prevalent in so many stories about schizophrenia, is often fascinating. In Scar’s unfortunate case, however, the book is entirely undone by it’s structure and lack of restraint.
In this case, the tiniest of details matter, because there are enough of them to irrevocably tarnish the experience. This is a self-published novel, and as is sometimes the case, has not been carefully edited. There are, to my dismay, many instances of grammatical and structural errors, as well as things left ignored (like one chapter’s ending spilling onto the starting page for the next chapter in a rather clumsy, desperate-to-lower-the-page-count manner). Quotation marks in particular seem to have been a thorn in this writer’s side.
Apart from the editing is the choice of fonts. Three different fonts are employed throughout the narrative: one for the main body of text, one for the footnotes, and a cursive script employed periodically throughout. First, the body text is sans-serif and very tight together, making it difficult to read for any length of time. Second, the text used for the physician’s footnotes is more readable and spaced out than the body text, which is an obvious oversight—very much the opposite of what it should be. Lastly, the cursive script is near unreadable. In fact, when I began feeling the overwhelming urge to skim the cursive is when I knew I was finished with this book.
To go a step further, in order to drive home the schizophrenic nature of the protagonist, Dermot, the author has chosen to employ lighter, greyscale text interspersed and placed overtop of the body text in certain places, which is again enough of a struggle to simply read that one begins to question why they are bothering with it in the first place. It’s difficult to not contemplate the ways in which these asides, used to further illustrate Dermot’s shifting tenuous emotional state, could have been better handled, through simple italics, or by employing it all, straight-up, in the text, messing with the rhythm of each sentence but maintaining a readable structure.
And lastly, there are the footnotes—notations made by Dermot’s psychiatrist to better describe the meaning and rationale behind much of the details of Dermot’s text. These are, universally, unnecessary, and more often than not (based on the book’s first half, which is as far as I made it) tell in simple, perfunctory terms, pieces of information that could have been shown and inserted in small, subtle ways, but within the actual body of the text. Or even as end-of-chapter compilations, in the form of a report made on Dermot’s current entry, or something along those lines. As they stand, the footnotes are nothing more than distractions offering omniscient odds and ends that remove a great deal of intrigue towards the protagonist and his unique mental state. By comparison, the occasional broken paragraphs, on-the-spot poetry-style structure and reversed-polarity white-on-black pages are used sparingly enough and are not nearly as distracting (plus, given the nature of the book, they feel more necessary as experimental asides than anything offered in the footnotes).
Scar is a very frustrating novel. As interested as I am in Dermot’s plight—and I truly am—its structural and editorial problems are plentiful, and sadly damage this title’s potential. It feels as if this were a collection of first-draft ideas rushed to completion. Time and revision is needed before this approach can be effective. Based on these issues alone, I cannot recommend this book.
***
Scar, Ryan Frawley’s literary fiction debut, tells a fractured narrative from the perspective of a young man, who also happens to be schizophrenic. Dermot Fallon, an English-born descendent of Irish ancestors, is hospitalized in Vancouver, BC, following a severe schizophrenic breakdown. Narrated from a first-person point-of-view, as fractured and disingenuous as it often is, Scar attempts to unfold the many layers of Dermot Fallon’s psychological imbalances.
This will be short, mostly because I’ve been unable to finish the book. In fact, this is the second title I’ve walked away from this year (for everyone at home keeping score). It’s not that Dermot’s story is uninteresting. Far from it—the mosaic of possibilities, of pathways and divergences prevalent in so many stories about schizophrenia, is often fascinating. In Scar’s unfortunate case, however, the book is entirely undone by it’s structure and lack of restraint.
In this case, the tiniest of details matter, because there are enough of them to irrevocably tarnish the experience. This is a self-published novel, and as is sometimes the case, has not been carefully edited. There are, to my dismay, many instances of grammatical and structural errors, as well as things left ignored (like one chapter’s ending spilling onto the starting page for the next chapter in a rather clumsy, desperate-to-lower-the-page-count manner). Quotation marks in particular seem to have been a thorn in this writer’s side.
Apart from the editing is the choice of fonts. Three different fonts are employed throughout the narrative: one for the main body of text, one for the footnotes, and a cursive script employed periodically throughout. First, the body text is sans-serif and very tight together, making it difficult to read for any length of time. Second, the text used for the physician’s footnotes is more readable and spaced out than the body text, which is an obvious oversight—very much the opposite of what it should be. Lastly, the cursive script is near unreadable. In fact, when I began feeling the overwhelming urge to skim the cursive is when I knew I was finished with this book.
To go a step further, in order to drive home the schizophrenic nature of the protagonist, Dermot, the author has chosen to employ lighter, greyscale text interspersed and placed overtop of the body text in certain places, which is again enough of a struggle to simply read that one begins to question why they are bothering with it in the first place. It’s difficult to not contemplate the ways in which these asides, used to further illustrate Dermot’s shifting tenuous emotional state, could have been better handled, through simple italics, or by employing it all, straight-up, in the text, messing with the rhythm of each sentence but maintaining a readable structure.
And lastly, there are the footnotes—notations made by Dermot’s psychiatrist to better describe the meaning and rationale behind much of the details of Dermot’s text. These are, universally, unnecessary, and more often than not (based on the book’s first half, which is as far as I made it) tell in simple, perfunctory terms, pieces of information that could have been shown and inserted in small, subtle ways, but within the actual body of the text. Or even as end-of-chapter compilations, in the form of a report made on Dermot’s current entry, or something along those lines. As they stand, the footnotes are nothing more than distractions offering omniscient odds and ends that remove a great deal of intrigue towards the protagonist and his unique mental state. By comparison, the occasional broken paragraphs, on-the-spot poetry-style structure and reversed-polarity white-on-black pages are used sparingly enough and are not nearly as distracting (plus, given the nature of the book, they feel more necessary as experimental asides than anything offered in the footnotes).
Scar is a very frustrating novel. As interested as I am in Dermot’s plight—and I truly am—its structural and editorial problems are plentiful, and sadly damage this title’s potential. It feels as if this were a collection of first-draft ideas rushed to completion. Time and revision is needed before this approach can be effective. Based on these issues alone, I cannot recommend this book.
February 21, 2012
Published by 529 Publishing
Reviewed for Review the Book
I began this book in an erroneous state of mind. I was sure I was reading non-fiction, but no, this book is a novel, in fact it is Ryan Frawley's debut novel. It must say a great deal about the author's ability when the reader can err between fact and fiction. In my own defense, there are several passages that were obvious and deliberate fiction. Regardless, this is an exceptional story from the mind of Dermot Fallon, a man who has the ability to keep a journal illuminating the mind of a schizophrenic, a man who is suffering from and hospitalized with schizophrenia. His psychiatrist collaborates on the story which has been written in journals he has provided his patient with to put down his thoughts and memories. The results have been outstanding.
Reproduced from Dermot's own writing, the psychiatrist's footnotes help sort the story out. The storyline by its very definition of mind fracture would be difficult to write, but handle it Ryan Frawley accomplishes this complex story very well. This is the first time I have felt the stirring of understanding schizophrenia, and just how rampant this particular disease of the mind or psyche is. Dermot is a patient in Riverview Hospital, a real mental health facility near Vancouver, BC. I was born and raised in Vancouver, which makes me feel almost as an onlooker of important tragedy in this large city.
This is a very powerful book. It is well-researched and portrayed. Reading the book brought me through pain and elation, through Irish mythology and human relationships. Partway through the book, I began to notice a puzzle. Not the obvious coded puzzle that is a part of Dermot's history, but a puzzle for the reader to solve. This was very interesting to me, a little bit of mystery in the mix. What does this mean? Well, that I am going to leave up to future readers because I will not give it away, if indeed there is anything to give away. I do believe I am right, though, and it will be interesting to see if other readers feel the same. A fascinating, frightening yet entertaining book overall.
Reviewed for Review the Book
I began this book in an erroneous state of mind. I was sure I was reading non-fiction, but no, this book is a novel, in fact it is Ryan Frawley's debut novel. It must say a great deal about the author's ability when the reader can err between fact and fiction. In my own defense, there are several passages that were obvious and deliberate fiction. Regardless, this is an exceptional story from the mind of Dermot Fallon, a man who has the ability to keep a journal illuminating the mind of a schizophrenic, a man who is suffering from and hospitalized with schizophrenia. His psychiatrist collaborates on the story which has been written in journals he has provided his patient with to put down his thoughts and memories. The results have been outstanding.
Reproduced from Dermot's own writing, the psychiatrist's footnotes help sort the story out. The storyline by its very definition of mind fracture would be difficult to write, but handle it Ryan Frawley accomplishes this complex story very well. This is the first time I have felt the stirring of understanding schizophrenia, and just how rampant this particular disease of the mind or psyche is. Dermot is a patient in Riverview Hospital, a real mental health facility near Vancouver, BC. I was born and raised in Vancouver, which makes me feel almost as an onlooker of important tragedy in this large city.
This is a very powerful book. It is well-researched and portrayed. Reading the book brought me through pain and elation, through Irish mythology and human relationships. Partway through the book, I began to notice a puzzle. Not the obvious coded puzzle that is a part of Dermot's history, but a puzzle for the reader to solve. This was very interesting to me, a little bit of mystery in the mix. What does this mean? Well, that I am going to leave up to future readers because I will not give it away, if indeed there is anything to give away. I do believe I am right, though, and it will be interesting to see if other readers feel the same. A fascinating, frightening yet entertaining book overall.
November 17, 2011
Imaginatively and meticulously written, “Scar” is a novel which will appeal to readers of all fiction genres.
Through this intricately written tale, Frawley humanizes his main character, Dermot’s, illness by allowing the reader to get to know him as an individual person rather than writing him off with a label as so often is done in our society. In fact, Dermot seems to be so “normal” at times that his illness stealthily creeps up on the reader, bristling neck hairs at unexpected moments. With each turn of the page the reader becomes more immersed in Dermot’s life, simultaneously wanting to read more quickly to learn what happens, and more slowly to prolong enjoyment of the story.
With numerous twists and layers, the story develops and transforms in ways that will continue to engage the reader long after they’ve put the book down. The reader will want to re-read this story again and again (possibly immediately after finishing it), likely discovering new and ingenious details each time.
While the conclusion of the story is satisfying in its own right, it’s easy to imagine that any segment of Dermot’s life could produce another equally absorbing volume. Between Dermot’s own reflections and his psychiatrist’s notes, the reader will long to know the puzzle pieces of Dermot’s life, both before and after the time span depicted.
Frawley has crafted a truly creative and unique yet ultimately very readable novel which will surely be the envy of other authors. “Scar” is destined to become a much lauded literary classic and cult favourite.
Through this intricately written tale, Frawley humanizes his main character, Dermot’s, illness by allowing the reader to get to know him as an individual person rather than writing him off with a label as so often is done in our society. In fact, Dermot seems to be so “normal” at times that his illness stealthily creeps up on the reader, bristling neck hairs at unexpected moments. With each turn of the page the reader becomes more immersed in Dermot’s life, simultaneously wanting to read more quickly to learn what happens, and more slowly to prolong enjoyment of the story.
With numerous twists and layers, the story develops and transforms in ways that will continue to engage the reader long after they’ve put the book down. The reader will want to re-read this story again and again (possibly immediately after finishing it), likely discovering new and ingenious details each time.
While the conclusion of the story is satisfying in its own right, it’s easy to imagine that any segment of Dermot’s life could produce another equally absorbing volume. Between Dermot’s own reflections and his psychiatrist’s notes, the reader will long to know the puzzle pieces of Dermot’s life, both before and after the time span depicted.
Frawley has crafted a truly creative and unique yet ultimately very readable novel which will surely be the envy of other authors. “Scar” is destined to become a much lauded literary classic and cult favourite.
February 14, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. I read it on my e reader so some of the annotations and references were lost and it was a bit confusing to read them all at the end. I would have given it a 3 star rating for this fact but, because I am sure it would have read easier in paper back form (could not find a bloody copy anywhere), that is not the fault of the author and doesn't take away from his writing skills or style which I very much enjoyed.
I liked how it seemed to be a bit of a clinical study as well as a story with characters you could warm up to but also bits of fairy tales, if you will. It was a bit difficult to jump between the Doctor, the main character, his lady in Canada and his folk lore but once you got the hang of what was going on you understood that you were viewing things from the mind of of schizophrenic.
I grew up on the west coast of Canada (around Vancouver) and had spent a year living in Ireland. This was a very accurate portrayal of both places, although more of Ireland was written about than Vancouver, and I quite enjoyed the feeling of traveling back again.
I would read more of this author's writing...if I could find some.
I liked how it seemed to be a bit of a clinical study as well as a story with characters you could warm up to but also bits of fairy tales, if you will. It was a bit difficult to jump between the Doctor, the main character, his lady in Canada and his folk lore but once you got the hang of what was going on you understood that you were viewing things from the mind of of schizophrenic.
I grew up on the west coast of Canada (around Vancouver) and had spent a year living in Ireland. This was a very accurate portrayal of both places, although more of Ireland was written about than Vancouver, and I quite enjoyed the feeling of traveling back again.
I would read more of this author's writing...if I could find some.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2012
Too wonderful, I don't know how to talk about it. The spiritual insights of schizophrenia; Irish legends earthily told; artistry, of the sort that only needs a sentence or two, to make you look twice. I have to read this again. I feel inadequate to comment. - Not that you can't gain much, much, on a single and even fast read; the story hastens you along.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews