Published By: Manilla Press
Pages: 256
Released On: 09/05/2024
March 2020. Annie is alone in her house as the world shuts down, only the ghosts of her memories for company. But then she receives a phone call which plunges her deeper into the past.
1959. Annie and Rita are student nurses at Fairlie Hall mental hospital. Working long, gruelling hours, they soon learn that the only way to appease their terrifying matron is to follow the rules unthinkingly. But what is happening in the hospital’s hidden side wards? And at what point does following the rules turn into complicity – and betrayal?
1983. Annie is reeling from the loss of her husband and struggling to face raising her daughter alone. Following a chance encounter, she offers a sick young man a bed for the night, a good deed that soon leads to another. Before long, she finds herself entering a new life of service – her home a haven for those who are cruelly shunned. But can we ever really atone?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Manilla Press for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I love it when a character’s story is told over their life. We get to see them as young, middle aged, and older, see them as a partner, a spouse, a parent, a widow. It is such a fascinating character device.
The scenes set in 2020 are in first person as Annie, with the other two sections in third person. This gives us both and insider and outsider look at the goings on. The scenes in the 50s and 80s are not just Annie’s scenes. And I think that’s why it’s in the third person; whereas the 2020 scenes are about Annie, and that’s why it is in first. It could have been complicated and a bit flitty, difficult to get your head round, but it really works.
I generally don’t like stories set during the pandemic, because I feel we lived it, I don’t want to relive it, I come to books for escapism. But I didn’t mind it too much in this because it’s balanced out by the other two sections, and the pandemic itself didn’t really play a huge part in the book, so it was okay.
I know it was a different time then, and that hindsight is a marvellous thing, but to read, even in a fiction book, about the AIDS crisis and how these innocent young men were treated so abhorrently, it’s so sad but also frustrating. But not only that, just how people were treated in general, especially those with mental health difficulties. It’s hard to read, but important to remember.
It’s an interesting look at Annie’s life, and how she develops. In the 50s, I felt she was quite…to the book. Doing what she had to do in the way she was meant to, following the rules, but questioning them, at least in her head. And then in the 80s, I felt she was initially a bit cold. There was compassion but it felt more like it was her obligation to help, rather than anything else, but she does warm up. And then in the 2020s, you can finally see that heart of hers and how her past has impacted her today.
There are many characters, the main one obviously being Annie, but then we also have Rita who is a second main character, at least in the 1950s scenes. But this is Annie’s story from the very start to the very end, and she’s a strong presence, and I loved exploring her story from young to old, and how those she met in the past are still affecting her present.
It is such a sensitive book, without being patronising or too aww-bless. It’s tender, but doesn’t hide away from the raw honesty of the time. There are difficult topics: AIDS, homophobia, mental illness, COVID, death, grief, torture, conversion therapy.
It’s not the easiest book to read, which isn’t surprising really, given the topics, and yet I felt compelled to be absorbed in it, like I owed it to these fictional characters and the real people they represented. It’s not easy to read, but it is important to read.
It’s not a very long book, but that’s not to say you feel short-changed. It fees like it’s long, not in a negative way, but in the sense that it is so packed with emotion that I feel it can’t possibly have been a short book. It doesn’t drag, nor is it too fast. It’s pitched perfectly. If it was any shorter, then you wouldn’t have been as invested in the characters, but any longer and it would stretch too much and filled with…well, filler.
For me, it is an exploration of love. Of love for family and friends, colleagues, strangers. Of hetero and homosexual love. Of love amongst hatred. Of love amongst anger. Of love against obstacles. Of nostalgic love, reflective love, “wrong” love.
Books By Your Bedside 