What Lies in the Woods, by Kate Alice Marshall: When I picked this up, I didn’t realize the author had written a YA book (How to Disappear Completely) that was not for me at all, and fortunately, this was much stronger. Slightly predictable, but solid enough, though some slightly off-putting depictions of mental illness.
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport, by Paulette Kennedy: In one sense, this felt a bit stock and melodramatic, but those qualities also felt deliberate. I will say that this did a really good job at demonstrating what a nightmare life could be like for women in the 1950s.
The Noonday Demon, by Andrew Solomon: When I read Darkness Visible I was underwhelmed; I enjoyed this much more, though Solomon’s Far From the Tree is more fascinating. I can also understand that when this was published, it would have had far greater impact (in a world in which depression was less frequently written about).
Absolution, by Alice McDermott: The ending left me feeling at odds – surely there’s more? – but in spite of that, this is a gorgeous book. I’m not convinced the structure was the right choice for the story, but I loved the primary plot that took place in Saigon in the 1960s, and the writing is beautiful.
Sociopath, by Patric Gagne: There’s plenty of chatter as to whether this is “real” or if it’s an invented memoir; while it seems likely to me that there’s reconstructed dialogue – triumphant speeches delivered all at once, in perfectly digestible terms – I don’t know that there’s any reason to doubt the author’s experience. I certainly felt as if I had a stronger sense of empathy for personality disorders after reading; I think it’s still true that people are likely to view depression, autism, schizophrenia, OCD, anxiety, etc as illnesses and narcissism/sociopathy/borderline personality as “evil,” or at least “irredeemable” and countering that is a good thing.
