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Poppy Shakespeare (2007)

Poppy Shakespeare (2007)

Book Info

Author
Rating
3.29 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0747585849 (ISBN13: 9780747585848)
Language
English
Publisher
bloomsbury uk

About book Poppy Shakespeare (2007)

It took me a while to get into this book, but I'm glad I stayed with it. The first person dialect is distracting at first, but I really felt like I got to know the main character 'N' through her unique perspective. I've read several books recently where character point of view affects the outcome and you question the honesty of their narrative, but here there is no question of how genuine N's storytelling is; even if she has a warped view of events, it is clear that she believes everything she says. Despite a few exaggerations, her honesty is the most likeable thing about her, and the style of dialogue reflects that of someone who has been part of the system for as long as she has been alive, with her opinions shaped by her experiences, and her actions shaped by her opinions. The most terrifying thing about this book is that there is reality amongst the satire. I have a personal fear of mental institutions, and this book reflects that fear: who gets to say if we are sane, and how do we prove it? But there is also the question of how close exactly the hospital is to reality. The patients ride the system; the doctors are tied up in red tape.But, however close to (or far away from) the truth it is, the charm of this book is in the routine and the day to day lives of the characters. The chapters are short, and some of them claim to be pointless and indulgent (there's that narrator honesty), therefore we are swept along with the feeling that this is just a bit of gossip with friends, making it impossible to put this book down for fear we might miss something juicy.

I bought this book after watching the TV adaptation which, unusually, was both brilliant and true to the book. The story is told by a character called N, and deals with her experiences within the mental health services in Britain.I've noticed from other reviews that some people have found the fact it's written in a North London accent a bit hard to follow. I didn't find it to be a problem myself, though I suppose being British myself, and having already seen the TV adaptation, helped with that!I really admire Clare Allan for writing this, especially since finding out that it's largely inspired by her own experience of being a "service user". Her perspective is one of dark humor, while not shying away from the inevitable sadness that comes with this subject matter. One thing this book does is highlight how ridiculous the mental health care system can be, how it can leave people with no other option than to "work the system".I can imagine in the future, this will be in my imaginary list of ultimate favourite books. It's realistic and easy to relate to, sensitively written, but with some genuinely funny moments.

Do You like book Poppy Shakespeare (2007)?

I found this book at e@curve and bought two. One for me and one for Shima Scarlett. As I expected, both of us love to book. If you are familiar with my choice of books, you might have already realized that 50% of the book I bought are those that I can relate with. so with this book, it is about being in a psychiatric ward and surrounded with people with various exceptional problems. If your really want to know what happens in this type of closed and guarded vicinity , you must not only read, GIRL interrupted or Man Interrupted. This book is similar with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It covers a lot of psycological issues that seem to be normal to me but might be abnormal to you. It is a story about a girl name Poppy who has to stay or be present in a psychiatric ward. Check out the movie. !!!
—Zulaikha Sizarifalina

Bloody brilliant. I actually listened to the audio version over the coure of a couple weeks (during my commute). I think it would have been exhausting to *read* read (a reviewer concurred: "There's a profusion of names, colloquialisms, and stream of thought sentences in this novel, and they leave you exhausted.") And, now that I have heard the story and have all the pictures in my head I would distrust a TV / film adaptation to get it right. (Although I did read a good review of the BBC TV adaptation.) Anyway, I reckon that audio is really the best medium for this one.
—Lisa

There really wasn't much in this novel that I could say I enjoyed.It's narrated by a day-patient of the Dorothy Fish, a mental institution in London. She writes in exactly the same way you'd imagine her to speak, and this took a lot of getting used to, particularly her constant use of the phrase "would of/could of" instead of the proper "would have/could have". This is blatant nit-picking, of course, since it's not Allan's language, but the narrator's. Still, I was really annoyed, and the voice I hear inside my head when I read couldn't quite come to grips with the accent.There was some good humour in the book, the narrator, 'N', was such a character and I particularly enjoyed it when she insulted people by "showing them the back of my head." I do feel that the constant repetitions, although they managed to convey N's apparent madness, got tiring in places. I found my eyes to be glazing over more than once as I was trying to wade through the drivel.The ending was very, very disappointing and didn't make much sense to me. In fact, the entire novel didn't much a great deal of sense to me, and was a small step away from nonsense the entire time.In all, this was a confusing book that I'm still trying to get my head around. It was a lovely idea in theory, but I really think it's been very badly executed. There is, however, a television adaptation available on 4od which I haven't seen as of yet, but which I've heard quite good things about. I just wouldn't recommend the book.
—JK

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