Play Book Tag discussion

Blue Asylum – Kathy Hepinstall
2**

As the United States fights a Civil War, Iris Dunleavy wages a battle at her Virginia plantation home against her husband’s tyranny. As a result, she is “convicted of madness,” and is sent to an island asylum off the coast of Florida.

I wanted to like this. I thought the premise was interesting and that there would be some opportunity to learn more about the issues of the time, especially as it concerned treatment of the mentally ill. But I was sorely disappointed.

Hepinstall populates the novel with a wide array of characters: Dr. Cowell, who prides himself on running such a “modern” asylum; the matron, obviously modeled on Nurse Ratched; Wendell, the doctor’s pubescent son; Mary, the doctor’s wife who is more neurotic and needy than most of the patients; the chef, who has befriended Wendell; Ambrose, a confederate officer suffering from PTSD; and various other patients, from the charmingly odd to the deranged and violent. The doctor’s wife was a wasted opportunity. She floats in and out of the novel, much as she must float in and out her of laudanum-induced haze. Poor confused Wendell spends more time masturbating and hiding in the swamp than interacting with the characters; still, he plays a pivotal role.

There are a few positives. Iris is (mostly) a strong female lead character. If she occasionally acts against her own best interests, well, I think that’s easily understood given her circumstances. But her decisions and behavior in the last few chapters are just ridiculous. One moment she seems to have some sense of self-preservation and is thinking along those lines, the next she’s throwing caution to the winds and behaving in a manner that is sure to attract unwanted attention.

Perhaps Hepinstall was trying to give the reader a sense of the disorientation a truly sane person must feel in such a mandated confinement. If that was her intention, then she mostly succeeded. But, like Iris, I just wanted to escape.



LINK to my review