Poppy Shakespeare

Author: Clare Allan
Link to book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poppy-Shakespeare-Clare-Allan/dp/0747585849/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281970760&sr=8-1

Main characters: N, Poppy, Saffra (Poppy's daughter), Tony Balaclava (head of the Dorothy Fish Day Centre.)
Genre: Fiction, based around mental health and the mental health care system.

I knew this story well before even looking at the book. Channel 4 did a feature length rendition of it, staring Anna Maxwell Martin as N, and Naomie Harris (best known as Tia Dalma/Calypso from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films) as Poppy. It was this version of the story that made me pick the book up straight away from the library. For those of you who haven't seen it, you MUST watch it. It's powerful, heartwrenching and so very very well done. Naomie and Anna play their respective parts perfectly, and it is shot exactly how it needs to be. It's currently on Youtube, but it is an hour and a half long, so settle down for a long stint if you plan on watching it.

Blurb: Welcome to the Dorothy Fish, a day hospital in North London. N has been a patient here for thirteen years. Day after day she sits smoking in the common room, swapping medication and comparing MAD money rates. Like all the patients at the Dorothy Fish, N's chief ambition is never to be discharged. Each year when her annual assessment comes round, she is relieved to learn that she hasn't got any better.

Then in walks Poppy Shakespeare in her six-inch skirt and twelve-inch heels. She is certain she isn't mentally ill and is desperate to return to her life outside. Though baffled by Poppy's attitude, N agrees to help. Together they plot to gain Poppy's freedom. But in a world where everything's upside-down, are they crazy enough to upset the system?

Oh how I wanted to like this book. I really really did. But this is the first book in a very long time where I haven't been able to finish, no matter how hard I tried. I got to page 40, which equates to approximately the first 8 minutes of the TV show. I was so upset when I finally closed it because I wanted to like it so badly!

It's not that it's a bad book, it's simply the manner in which the narrative is written, from the perspective of N, that meant I just couldn't get into it. It's because I'm used to different writing styles to this: the narrative is really written in the style of a mental patient. Clare knows a lot about this, as she herself was a patient in a mental health day hospital for 10 years and so was using this to inform her writing. That and this being her first novel means that she perhaps had not quite perfected her writing style.

Poppy Shakespeare is a beautifully tragic tale (I can comment on the story through watching and reading what I could), in where, to prove she isn't mad, she must pretend to be mad to gain access to the funds she needs for a lawyer. So N helps her to complete the forms in the style of a mentalist, and Poppy acts her heart out to show the staff she's mad enough to get the funds. However, when it comes to her daughter's father believing that it's more than an act, N starts to wonder just how sane Poppy really is, and so does she.

There have been many references to 'Catch-22' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', and there are clear similarities between the themes. I can't comment on how they're presented in the book because sadly, I didn't get that far. However, from what I have seen of the feature length take on it, Clare has written some believable, deep characters which make you feel their pain. It also takes very strongly from the book and that's what I like about it in particular. I could hear words I'd read hours before coming at me.

Would I read it again?: I would like to give it another shot, but I wouldn't want to force myself to read past what was enjoyable simply for the sake of reaching the end of the book. Again: not because it's a bad book, but because the narrative being written in this style meant that it just wasn't my cup of tea.

All in all: 3/5 - for true to life, emotional characters and a story that will damn near break your heart when it gets to the end (not for watching at 4am like I did!), The narrative is believable, well written as if spoken and realistic but just not for me.

Name & TGPF username: Lauren - SapphireDreams