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Product Description
Product Description
Deborah is a 16-year-old girl locked in torment within her own mind. The terrors, horrors and delusions facing Deborah as she battles with schizophrenia form the basis of this book. Doomed to the white world of the mental ward she struggles from madness to reality.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Author
There is no creativity in madness.
I wrote this book as a way of describing mental illness without the romanticisation that it underwent in the sixties and seventies when people were Taking LSD to stimulate what they thought was a liberating experience. During those days people often confused creativity with insanity. There is no creativity in madness; madness is the opposite of creativity, although people may be creative in spite of being mentally ill. I also wanted to steer away from melodrama, and to deal with the stigma of mental illness, but not to concentrate on it. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I wrote this book as a way of describing mental illness without the romanticisation that it underwent in the sixties and seventies when people were Taking LSD to stimulate what they thought was a liberating experience. During those days people often confused creativity with insanity. There is no creativity in madness; madness is the opposite of creativity, although people may be creative in spite of being mentally ill. I also wanted to steer away from melodrama, and to deal with the stigma of mental illness, but not to concentrate on it. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A beautifully written, haunting account of a young girl's confinement in a mental institution and her struggle to overcome mental illness, presumably schizophrenia. Written in the early 1960's, the book is terribly archaic in its understanding of schizophrenia, but Greenburg's prose is so bewitching and her protagonist so fascinating, that it is easy to forgive some of her misconceptions about mental illness. her construction of the main character's alternate reality is particularly brilliant, and i found the book more enjoyable when read almost as a fantasy rather than a medical case history. All in all, a powerful, albeit occasionally tedious, work of literature.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Rarely does there come a book that transcends genre, time, and cultural barriers speaking directly to the human heart. This is one of those rare books. Rather than showing the mysterious and foreign world of insanity I had expected, it reveals that the mentally ill struggle with the same needs and battles as we all do: The need for love and acceptance, the power of undiluted truth, and of undeserved kindness and forgiveness. Comparable to victor Hugo's Les Misérables this book is not merely about a certain minority group, but about major life issues and struggles that touch us at the core of who we are, no matter what our background.
Insanity is a form of defense, a way of not seeing. Rather than offering an "alternate reality", it creates a wall that keeps out hurt, but also keeps out the love that we all need. I couldn't help but see the similarity between the hiding from life of the insane, and the hiding from life of the polite, trivial, distraction-obsessed, non-introspective world of the "normal". To live in reality is a fight for us both. It is tempting to take the easy way out for both groups, and swallowing the lies of an easy struggle-free existence is tempting, but as the main character Deborah Blau says, "To be alive is to fight". This book made me glad to be alive. Read it!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
THE BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME BY A FRIEND. SHE THOUGHT IT WOULD HELP AS I HAVE SCHOZOPHRNIA. I HAVE READ IT AND RE-READ IT AND HAVE TO ADMIT I AM NOW A COMMITTED DEBORAH FAN. THE BOOK HAD ME HOOKED FROM PAGE ONE. IT IS BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND AS OTHERS HAVE SAID LEFT ME WANTING MORE. WAS A SEQUEL EVER WRITTEN? I KNOW THERE IS A VIDEO BUT AM HAVING TROUBLE FINDING IT ON UK VHS FORMAT CAN ANYBODY HELP. PLEASE E-MAIL ME ON CLAIREA@ZOOM.CO.UK IF YOU CAN.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I never promised you a rose garden
For anyone interested in mental health and present day treatments compared to 50/60 years ago, this is a fantastic eye-opener. Read more
Published 7 months ago by racs
Uncertain and fantastical
I am uncertain about this book. In some aspects, I did enjoy it and found parts of it interesting - the author certainly made some good points surrounding the morals and stigma... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Stepping Out of the Page
Re-reading this
I read this book when I was 15, in 1986; I can't remember how I came to get it. But it stayed with me, all these years, despite the thousands of books I've read since. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Frances
DONT BOTHER
Dont buy this book. It really difficult to read as it switches between the real world and the main characters fantasy world of Yr in a really awkward and confusing way. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Rach
A triumph of will over the cruelest of enemies.
Few works of art have spoken to me as this book has. Through the course of story, you are shown that, truly, our most formidable opposition lies within us. Read more
Published on 4 Sep 1999
The mind is a terrible thing to waste...
There are times when I would like to just go "insane" and casually strangle my annoying co-workers, but I don't. Why? Read more
Published on 22 July 1999
Shows the reality of this awful psychosis
My grandmother suffers from this, as did her mom, and eventually mine...than maybe me. It's a scary thought. Read more
Published on 4 Jun 1999
Brilliant. A classic. I couldnt put it down.
Rarely does there come a book that transcends genre, time, and cultural barriers speaking directly to the human heart. This is one of those rare books. Read more
Published on 24 May 1999
Fascinating
I Never Promised you a Rose Garden is a sensitive and moving gift of understanding. This brilliant and creative, although tormented young girl urges one to explore their own... Read more
Published on 28 April 1999
Interesting reading, for everyone
I read I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, and I loved it ! I'm 13 years old, and it is not as confusing as people have said. If I can read it, anybody can. Read more
Published on 13 April 1999
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