  | Last January, I decided that this was the year I’d reread some of my all-time favourite books. I thought one per month would be reasonable; I actually read ten, although I’m awarding myself double points for the single non-fiction book. By sheer chance, they divided equally into five I found well worth revisiting and five that didn’t thrill me so much second time around. Read on to see which was which. |
Books that merited rereading
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the setting of my own novel published this year, three of these books feature psychiatric hospitals, while another is about the original madwoman in the attic. You can follow the links to my full reviews.
The seventy-something neighbours in Kent Haruf’s novel Our Souls at Night find a practical antidote to loneliness that develops into love; unfortunately it’s scuppered by the ageism of their children. Wreaking by James Scudamore is a deliciously disturbing story set largely in the ruins of a former psychiatric hospital. Despite my reservations about his fictional asylum, I enjoyed how Sebastian Barry explores Irish history in his novel about the relationship between a hundred-year-old psychiatric patient and her world-weary sixty-five-year-old psychiatrist in The Secret Scripture. I reread Wide Sargasso Sea for an online talk on writing about mental health issues, where I contrast Charlotte Brontë’s depiction of Rochester’s first wife in Jane Eyre with Jean Rhys’s humanising the same character over a century later. Rereading Museums of Madness by Andrew Scull reminded me that the cruel treatment of Brontë’s Bertha was far from unusual for the times.
The seventy-something neighbours in Kent Haruf’s novel Our Souls at Night find a practical antidote to loneliness that develops into love; unfortunately it’s scuppered by the ageism of their children. Wreaking by James Scudamore is a deliciously disturbing story set largely in the ruins of a former psychiatric hospital. Despite my reservations about his fictional asylum, I enjoyed how Sebastian Barry explores Irish history in his novel about the relationship between a hundred-year-old psychiatric patient and her world-weary sixty-five-year-old psychiatrist in The Secret Scripture. I reread Wide Sargasso Sea for an online talk on writing about mental health issues, where I contrast Charlotte Brontë’s depiction of Rochester’s first wife in Jane Eyre with Jean Rhys’s humanising the same character over a century later. Rereading Museums of Madness by Andrew Scull reminded me that the cruel treatment of Brontë’s Bertha was far from unusual for the times.
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Books I didn’t enjoy as much the second time around
Along with Our Souls at Night, I re-read these five novels for a blog post on my publisher’s website on older characters in fiction (image and link below). Nothing against these books, but they didn't otherwise merit a second reading. Click on the individual images if you'd like to see my reviews.
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Check out a wider selection of novels featuring older characters on the Inspired Quill blog
Although a couple might have come close, none of these made my books of the year. Click on the image below for short synopses of my twelve favourite reads of 2021.
Have you reread any books this year? What have you most and least enjoyed?
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