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Loading... I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (original 1964; edition 1989)by Joanne Greenberg (Author)
Work InformationI Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg (1964)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Deborah Blau is a 16-year-old Jewish girl living in a wealthy household with everything going for her, except for the fact that she’s schizophrenic and very, very ill indeed. So ill, in fact, that much as her parents want to deny the truth, they are eventually persuaded to send her to a private mental hospital for treatment. Once there, Deborah quickly escalates until she is sent to D Ward, where the most extreme crazies are locked up; and once *there*, she finally begins to heal, with the aid of a famous and deeply empathetic psychiatrist….This is a multiple-time re-read for me; I think with all the craziness going on in the real world these days, I just felt an urge to dive into an unreal crazy world for a respite. Although published in 1964 and set, I think, more in the late 1950s, the story holds up very well some 56 years later. The imagery, both in terms of how the D Ward is portrayed and the very poetic fantasy world of Yr that Deborah inhabits, still feels very credible and true, and the characters of inmates and staff also ring true. This is one of my all-time favourite books about madness, and well worth searching out if it’s still in print; recommended. One of the smartest and absorbing books I've ever read. Mental illness is described so accurately and intensely that it was at times difficult or even scary for me to read this, as if I could fall into that perspective. Its style blends elements of genius and schizophrenic thoughts in such a way that they are at times inseparable. no reviews | add a review
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Chronicles the three-year battle of a mentally ill, but perceptive, teenage girl against a world of her own creation, emphasizing her relationship with the doctor who gave her the ammunition of self-understanding with which to destroy that world of fantasy. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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"That patient... did he get well?"
"Yes, he got well. Then the Nazis came and they put him into Dachau and he died there." ( )