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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Confined in crazy places: If At First & Piranesi

19/12/2021

5 Comments

 
These very different novels are both about young men detained in strange settings: the first a psychiatric ward; the second a labyrinth. Steven, in the first, is a reluctant captive who needs to learn the value of where he’s landed in order to leave. Piranesi, in the second, seems perfectly adapted to his environment, but he needs to discover the dark side to become his full self.

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If At First by Leo Adley

After an argument with his wife, Steven Walters sets out for the woods with a length of rope in his hands and thoughts of ending his life. Before the end of that scorching Oklahoma Sunday, he’s been detained in McFarrin Mental Hospital, sharing a room with a talkative fellow who’s attempted suicide seventeen times.
 
Steven’s determined not to spend more than a night there. He’s sure he doesn’t belong. Admittedly, he’s struggled since a family tragedy two years earlier, but he’s not like the other patients. However, the staff who can authorise his discharge have other ideas.
 
I found the novel to be well written, with some pleasing turns of phrase, although it could have done with another proof read. While I wasn’t convinced by the setup – I couldn’t imagine Steven being forcibly admitted in the UK – I did enjoy this deceptively light novel about mourning and masculinity. The novel beautifully captures the fear of facing one’s vulnerability and the loneliness of being offered the wrong kind of help.


Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Despite its privations of raging tides and limited diet of fish and seaweed, Piranesi lives contentedly in a semi-derelict building, comprised of many halls and stretching for miles. His days are filled with exploration, tending the bones of the dead, journalling and domesticity. He’s grateful for the company of birds and statues, and the world’s only other living occupant, a fellow researcher whom he meets by appointment twice a week.
 
From what I’d heard of this novel, winner of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, I wasn’t sure I’d like it. The world-building of the early pages, when what I’d taken for a museum after the apocalypse proved to be a fantasy setting, reinforced that view. But it was an easy read, and I read on … and on, staying up late to finish it. That’s quite a compliment from me.
 
The reader gradually discovers that the world is darker than the narrator envisages, but what we make of that discovery will reflect our personal philosophies. For me, Piranesi’s experience in the house profoundly parallels the comforts of ‘madness’ and the human capacity to adapt to almost any circumstances (that some would term resilience), no matter how bizarre.



So you’ll see why I ultimately enjoyed it; and perhaps why I felt as fond of this character as readers are of Matty, the cheerfully deluded heroine of my latest novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, which has just marked its six-month milestone. If you don’t know what I’m on about, click the image on the right to learn more.



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Click on the image to the left to see my 12 favourite reads of 2021.

What have you particularly enjoyed reading in 2021?



Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
5 Comments
Frank Parker link
27/12/2021 11:58:55 am

Hi Anne. Just browsing - as you know I recently reviewed Sugar and Snails for Rosie Amber. I noticed that your latest novel concerns a brother and sister separated by her confinement in a mental institution. You have a list of novels on similar themes on a page of your site. I was surprised to not see Sebastian Barry's "The Secret Scripture" listed there. It won the Costa, was short listed for Booker and made into a film. I thought the film strayed too far from the book, but I did like the book, although, in common with the Costa judges, I thought the ending too contrived.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
27/12/2021 05:28:36 pm

Thanks, Frank, for pointing that out and for your generous review of Sugar and Snails which I know you'll be sharing again for the February blog tour.

You're very welcome to browse around my site.

I'm not sure if I deliberately excluded The Secret Scripture because, although I really enjoyed the novel itself, I didn't think its depiction of the psychiatric hospital was very convincing, or because I hadn't reviewed it at the time I set up that page. But it does now have a review here so I've added it to that page.

https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdotal/rereading-mr-loverman-the-secret-scripture

I agree with you about the ending but didn't mind it so much on a second reading. I haven't actually seen the film.

Reply
Norah Colvin
16/1/2022 10:23:08 am

Another pair of interesting books reviewed. I think your tastes are darker than mine and maybe explore deeper. I'm not sure that I'll get to either of these. I really need to read more.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/1/2022 01:40:47 pm

I think I do like darker, but I'm experimenting with a new line for my bio:
It’s not so much that I’m drawn to darkness but I’m wary of artificial light.
These were actually quite easy reads.

Reply
Norah Colvin
18/1/2022 11:20:34 am

That's a deep line for your bio. :)




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    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
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    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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