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Product Description
Review
One of the most impressive accounts of madness to be found in literature ... A masterpiece (Anita Brookner )
What an extraordinary woman she is, overcoming such obstacles, and making fresh and good use of them in her work (Doris Lessing )
Lyrical, touching and deeply entertaining (John Mortimer, Observer )
What an extraordinary woman she is, overcoming such obstacles, and making fresh and good use of them in her work (Doris Lessing )
Lyrical, touching and deeply entertaining (John Mortimer, Observer )
Book Description
One of the most impressive accounts of madness to be found in literature ... A masterpiece' Anita Brookner
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Faces in the Water" is a gripping account of life in a psychiatric institution as told by the fictional Istina Mavet. The narrator spends a decade of her life in two New Zealand psychiatric hospitals. The book conveys the passage of time very effectively, despite the fact that in 10 years there were few changes in treatment and no discernable change in attitude towards the patients. Electric shock treatment is the main treatment on offer, and is often used to punish "undesirable behaviour". The power relationships between doctors, nurses and patients are illustrated beautifully. And the picture of the regime administered by these well-meaning people is a terrifying one of bullying, humiliation and non-communication. Janet Frame describes Istina and her fellow patients with great warmth and compassion. Ultimately this is a wonderful story of survival. I found it a fascinating and moving one.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Written from the point of view of a patient held within New Zealand mental institutions, Faces in the Water is an eloquent description of madness. The novel reveals the treatment of the mad while attacking the myth of the Mad Romantic heroine revealing frightening truths about the reality of mental illness. An absorbing and exciting read that broadens the range of reader experience.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For most of us, a false diagnosis of schizophrenia followed by eight years in a mental hospital is the stuff of nightmares. When it happens to a writer, it becomes the material for a novel. Although based on author Janet Frame's real experiences, she is quite clear that this is a work of fiction rather than a fictionalised autobiography.
"Faces in the Water" is narrated by Istina Mavet, a psychiatric in-patient. In it, she gives an account of her journey through the hospital system where each successive ward, like the Circles of Hell, is more terrible than the one before.
The power of this novel lies in its understated portrayal of the institutional power of the hospital system, and the medical orthodoxies that underpin it, to depersonalise staff and patients. It is no accident that the ultimate treatment is a form a brain surgery that guarantees to change a patient's personality.
This novel has rightly been assigned a place in the "literature of madness" alongside such classics as Antonia White's Frost in May; although, at times, Istina's enforced passivity in the face of well-intentioned cruelty reminded me of the young Jane Eyre.
"Faces in the Water" is narrated by Istina Mavet, a psychiatric in-patient. In it, she gives an account of her journey through the hospital system where each successive ward, like the Circles of Hell, is more terrible than the one before.
The power of this novel lies in its understated portrayal of the institutional power of the hospital system, and the medical orthodoxies that underpin it, to depersonalise staff and patients. It is no accident that the ultimate treatment is a form a brain surgery that guarantees to change a patient's personality.
This novel has rightly been assigned a place in the "literature of madness" alongside such classics as Antonia White's Frost in May; although, at times, Istina's enforced passivity in the face of well-intentioned cruelty reminded me of the young Jane Eyre.
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