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Magnificent Among the Angelfish
Set in 1973, MAGNIFICENT AMONG THE ANGELFISH is the story of 15-year-old James Freer, a lifelong resident of the Elsie Whitney Psychiatric Hospital and School in Magnolia Massachusetts. Suffering from Capgras Syndrome, a condition where the sufferer believes life is full of impostors; James is an excessively bright, vocal, imaginative, charming and irreverent young man. James’ worldview straddles the line between sanity and insanity in insightful and unique ways, always with his ferociously satirical sense of humor.
The first person narrative presents reality through James’ eyes and through his uniquely perceptive albeit inconsistent mind. The story’s main storyline reflects James’ inner (and eventually, outer) journey. Does he want to try to become sane enough to live out in what he calls Reality USA, life outside the hospital’s boundaries? Or stay in his safe, eccentric world in the hospital where sanity is fleeting and imagination is real? A cast of deeply troubled kids, invisible staff and a million rules to break, surround James.
Daily life on Unit 3 For Adolescent Boys is a moment to moment struggle to stay in some kind of reality, not always the one preferred by the hospital staff. Usually, it is tragic - comic bedlam, with many profoundly sick teenage boys, that on some days as James describes it, "it's like the Me Lie Massacre wearing red Keds."
James is also a poet savant. While sitting in a toilet stall one afternoon, James writes a long poem on the stall wall in red Bic pen. Gaining encouragement from his best friends, Mark Christian and Jonah Kimsky, both boys have deep psychosis and a big personality like James, James covers the stall walls in red ink poetry. His poetry becomes a sensation in the hospital. James sends one of them to a national poetry contest for 'sane' high school students.
James wins third prize. Invited to read his poem in New York City proves too much for him and he experiences a psychotic episode while speaking on the stage. As he explains to the "mental illness is living in a dark, unreal poem, not just writing dark poetry. My life is just one long never ending unpredictable poem whose end starts right over again at the beginning. The long confusion and short beauty of my mind will never end."
James is an orphan. He was left in the care of the hospital as a toddler. Finally giving in to his deep desire to find out who he is, where he came from and if he belongs to anyone, James ingeniously (you will not believe it) breaks out of the hospital. He ‘borrows’ a BMW and sets off into Reality USA to find his destiny. Magnificent Among the Angelfish is touching, entertaining, tragic and joyful.
The first person narrative presents reality through James’ eyes and through his uniquely perceptive albeit inconsistent mind. The story’s main storyline reflects James’ inner (and eventually, outer) journey. Does he want to try to become sane enough to live out in what he calls Reality USA, life outside the hospital’s boundaries? Or stay in his safe, eccentric world in the hospital where sanity is fleeting and imagination is real? A cast of deeply troubled kids, invisible staff and a million rules to break, surround James.
Daily life on Unit 3 For Adolescent Boys is a moment to moment struggle to stay in some kind of reality, not always the one preferred by the hospital staff. Usually, it is tragic - comic bedlam, with many profoundly sick teenage boys, that on some days as James describes it, "it's like the Me Lie Massacre wearing red Keds."
James is also a poet savant. While sitting in a toilet stall one afternoon, James writes a long poem on the stall wall in red Bic pen. Gaining encouragement from his best friends, Mark Christian and Jonah Kimsky, both boys have deep psychosis and a big personality like James, James covers the stall walls in red ink poetry. His poetry becomes a sensation in the hospital. James sends one of them to a national poetry contest for 'sane' high school students.
James wins third prize. Invited to read his poem in New York City proves too much for him and he experiences a psychotic episode while speaking on the stage. As he explains to the "mental illness is living in a dark, unreal poem, not just writing dark poetry. My life is just one long never ending unpredictable poem whose end starts right over again at the beginning. The long confusion and short beauty of my mind will never end."
James is an orphan. He was left in the care of the hospital as a toddler. Finally giving in to his deep desire to find out who he is, where he came from and if he belongs to anyone, James ingeniously (you will not believe it) breaks out of the hospital. He ‘borrows’ a BMW and sets off into Reality USA to find his destiny. Magnificent Among the Angelfish is touching, entertaining, tragic and joyful.
207 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 5, 2017
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February 24, 2018Interesting read
Although it took me awhile to read this book, it’s a very interesting read. You’re drawn in from the beginning.
Although it took me awhile to read this book, it’s a very interesting read. You’re drawn in from the beginning.
Displaying 1 of 1 review