I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - by Joanne Greenberg review

A semiautobiographical modern classic following the struggles of a girl suffering from schizophrenia and the talented psychologist leading her through them. 

The book begins with Deborah on her way to a mental institution after she was hospitalised for slitting her wrist, and soon afterwards you are introduced to the fantasy world of Yr: with its own gods, language and laws; into which she often goes to escape the world. The book shows the confusion of her illness by jumping between the worlds as she does, this is complex and hard to understand at first but becomes easier to read as you get used to it - and lessens as she improves.

While for some this fantasy aspect of the novel might be overwhelming or distracting, I found it enhanced the novel and gave more insight into Deborah's world than would have been possible without. At times her struggles were told with such an emotional impact that I was drawn into them, and felt despair of my own.

The treatments within this book are outdated, due to the age of the novel, and there have been debates about whether or not the author was actually suffering from what would be called schizophrenia by modern standards. Just as with any classic, if you keep in mind that times do change this shouldn't bother you, it often bothers me more when things haven't changed.

It is rare for me to re-read a novel, and rarer still for me to do so within the year - but I felt a need to read this again almost immediately after finishing.

I would recommend this for anyone interested in psychology, mental illness and/or exciting autobiographies. Your love of the main character will likely depend on whether or not you hated those in The Bell Jar or The Catcher in the Rye.
/ [Karithina]

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