Don't Look Down by David Laing Dawson

by David Laing Dawson

Four men, age 18 to 81, have murdered, and now share a room in the secure forensic psychiatry ward of a mental hospital. Who better to get inside their heads, and find both the tragedy and comedy of their lives than Canadian psychiatrist and novelist David Laing Dawson. Three of Dawson's previous novels, Last Rights, Double Blind, and Essondale have been published in seven European countries, the US and the UK. Dawson's novels have been described as a cross between Elmore Leonard and Seinfeld and as close to reality as it gets.

Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

Reviews

[Glenda Bixler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t Look Down
By David Laing Dawson
Bridgeross Communications
ISBN: 9780981003757
174 Pages


Don’t Look Down by David Laing Dawson is different...I don’t think it is a true story, but it is certainly fiction based upon the reality faced by the author as a clinical psychiatrist. At a minimum, I found it to be an indictment of the prison system and, perhaps, even the hospitals, as individuals who commit violent crimes are shuffled back and forth between the two institutions. Whether or not this was intended, it came through for me!

Consider Frank who has just served a ten-year sentence in prison for manslaughter. When his prison term is up, instead of being free, he is sent to a psychiatric hospital and placed in a room where there are three other men. As one of the men questions, why should these men feel safe living in such small quarters with someone who has murdered someone.

Henry was my favorite character. Most of the time he was clear in his head and probably would have been more often if he was not housed in the facility where his lawyer and doctors were trying to determine if he was able to stand trial. He had murdered his long-time companion. At her request. Oh, she didn’t specifically say that he should buy a gun and shoot her in the temple, but she had begged him to not have her lie and suffer until her death, like his first wife had done. Henry did the best he could to honor his companion's dying request.

Joseph was delusional about his wife—claiming that she was always having affairs and becoming severely depressed because of those delusions. David was schizophrenic and had been accused of killing Sally, a street woman with whom he had started to live, but David’s response was only that he had killed the thing that Sally had become...

“...it occurred to Henry that perhaps he was already dead. This could be it, he thought, a Spartan waiting room in Limbo, his keepers trading messages about him, deciding to pass him on or not.” (p. 109)

Daily life, the hours spent sitting in silence, waiting for medication or a meal, watching others, watching you continued. Until Frank attacked Joseph one night...

Don’t Look Down is not an easy book to read. Perhaps it will seem too real to you, but, then, perhaps you need to read it for one reason or another. Certainly professionals and students of psychiatry would find it a must-read. Certainly anybody who has friends or family in psychiatric hospitals should...

What any reader will find in the book, though, is that these men are just people, just like us, if our circumstances had been different, or were changed in the future... Excellent writing style for describing the personalities of these characters; you will come to care for each of them, even Frank. David Laing Dawson lays the truth on the line; will you be one that picks it up?

G. A. Bixler

[Jane Mulkewich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another novel by David Laing Dawson, former chief of psychiatry at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital. This one is about four men, age 18 to 81, who have murdered, and now share a room in the secure forensic psychiatry ward of a mental hospital. It is set in Hamilton, and the characters are linked to the ones in "Slide in All Direction" which I just finished reading. Unfortunately the Hamilton Public Library does not have all his novels; I would like to read them all.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of a novel by a psychiatrist, telling the tale of four murderers sharing a room, really intrigued me, and I was delighted to get the chance to read Don’t Look Down by David Laing Dawson. As I read the opening paragraphs though, I wasn’t quite sure what I was in for. Did I really want this kind of detail? The answer, as I soon learned, is yes, because you can’t tell half a tale when the character’s mind can only see a fraction at a time.

The truth of what the characters have done, and why, grows out of memories and interviews that slowly build to a whole. Henry’s fractured memories start to return while Frank falls apart. David takes all the logical steps; it’s just his logic that’s wrong and not his self. And Joseph learns to separate truth from lies but doesn’t like the result.

It all sounds so simple in simple words, but it’s not. This novel builds convincing lives and involves the reader deeply in their resolution. Beautifully absorbing internal dialog blends with awkward questions and answers to create a vivid whole—four vivid wholes. And in the end it’s hard to accuse the system of failing these men—more like failure was built into the pattern and healing is hard.

It’s a sad story, but not too sad; thought-provoking and inspiring too; and one that I’m really glad I’ve read.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

My complete review is here:
http://www.literatureandleisure.com/2...