Anna

by David Reed

This painful and moving story calls into question basic ideas about family life, mental illness, and love and death.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1976

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

David[2spaces]Reed: write script novelizations
David[3spaces]Reed: Journalist
David[4spaces]Reed: Art
David[5spaces]Reed: Business, Real Estate
David[6spaces]Reed: Stonescaping
David[7spaces]Reed: Computer Science
David[8spaces]Reed: Social History
David[9spaces]Reed: RPG

Reviews

[Randomerde · Rating 4 out of 5]

became another
self from a self burned down
flesh is not enough

[Neon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A top notch story of David, Anna and their two son's Gabriel and Thomas as they live their lives with Anna's Schizophrenia and mental illness.

A diary written by David littered with letters from him and Anna herself.

An intensely awkward read, but in a positive way. I truly felt for all the characters in their own way and found myself rather angry at the medical system much like I am in the real world.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was I good representation of how it is to live with someone with severe schizophrenia. If Anna got well I would love to hear her detail account of her sickness if that was possible. David did a good job of telling people how it was like to live and to try to help her. He tried to to
Relate to he public how it feels from Anna point of view but didn’t really succeed. So she actually burned her self alive.... so sad. What does it take for someone to find a cure for Schizophrenia and psychosis .

[Susan Budd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't handle this one. I read it long ago, then threw it away because I was overwhelmed by it and didn't want it in the house. Years later I searched it out again and re-read it -- and wouldn't you know it, I tossed the book out again. It's just one story too much for me.

[Tija Addams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short but fascinating look into the life of a wife and mothers decent into schizophrenic madness told through the eyes of a husband. Reading this book was hard because I just wanted to jump into the book & change the course of what happened.
As a carer myself I felt David’s feelings of inadequacy, frustration & hopelessness. Such a tragedy which could’ve and should’ve been prevented

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a true story of a woman who struggles with schizophrenia
and her husband kept a journal of life with her and what they go through... it is a complicated disease and yet fascinates me..

[Debbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A husband's written account of his wife's descent into madness and his fight to keep her at home. Fascinating true story.

[Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read; short but riveting.