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Loading... Asylum (1997)by Patrick McGrath
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, a tale of forbidden, obsessive love and the worst psychiatrist ever. The marvelous reading performance by Ian McKellan made for engrossing entertainment on a long drive. I think actually reading it myself would have been rather tedious. ( ) The story is told by a psychiatrist familiar with the case and stupidly it took me half of the book before I realized why this particular person was relating events. It's a compelling story, very well written but sordid! And filled with hideous people. Stella, the wife of doctor working in a high security psychiatric hospital, has a steamy affair with one of the patients, a patient who murdered his wife. When he escaped from the hospital with her help, she left her husband to move in with him. Obviously this is not going to end well for Stella. This is a difficult one to rate because it's so sordid and unpleasant. However, Ian McKellen, the audiobook narrator, gave a five-star performance. Competently written but ultimately rather dry novel about a psychiatrist’s wife who becomes romantically involved with one of her husband’s patients. I felt sure there must be some reason for the whole thing being narrated at some remove by another of the psychiatrists at the mental hospital - who by his own admission didn’t personally observe very much of what went on, and was relying on things he was told. I suppose there was, in a way, but I can’t be sure I totally understood it. no reviews | add a review
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Patrick McGrath has created his most psychologically penetrating vision to date: a nightmare world rocked to its foundations by a passion of such force and intensity that it shatters the lives--and minds--of all who are touched by it. Stella Raphael, a woman of great beauty and formidable intelligence, is married to Max, a staid and unimaginative forensic psychiatrist. Max has taken a job in a huge top-security mental hospital in rural England, and Stella, far from London society, finds herself restless and bored. Into her lonely existence comes Edgar Stark, a brilliant sculptor confined to the hospital after killing his wife in a psychotic rage. He comes to Stella's garden to rebuild an old Victorian conservatory there, and Stella cannot ignore her overwhelming physical attraction to this desperate man. Their explosive affair pits them against Stella's husband, her child, and the entire institution. When the crisis comes to a head, Stella makes a decision--one that will destroy several lives and precipitate an appalling tragedy that could only be fueled by illicit sexual love. Asylum is a terrifying exploration of the extremes to which erotic obsession can drive us. Patrick McGrath brings his own dazzling blend of cool artistry and visceral engagement to this mesmerizing story of a fatal love and its unspeakably tragic aftermath. And in Stella Raphael, a woman who tears down the walls of her constricted existence to pursue a dangerous passion, he has created a character who will long be remembered for her willingness to take the ultimate risk, even if she must pay the ultimate price. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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