You'd be mad not to give this one a go (Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan)

Member Name: Mildew82

Product:	Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan
Date:	06/09/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clever, tragic, funny and gripping

Disadvantages: Gets a little confused in places

Set in Dorothy Fish, a day patient ward which is part of the fictitious Abbadon Unit mental institution in North London, Poppy Shakespeare is a novel which takes a look at the British mental health service from the inside out and exposes some major flaws in the system.

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The Plot
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The story is told through the eyes of N, a patient on the Dorothy Fish ward for the last thirteen years. Along with a motley crew of other long term voluntary patients, they spend their days idling the time away by smoking and swapping medication and aiming to never get discharged. This routine is broken by the arrival of a new and extremely different patient - Poppy Shakespeare. Seemingly admitted against her will it is Poppy's aim to get out as soon as possible and N makes it her job to help her.

But unless Poppy can prove she is actually mad, she can't begin the process of proving that she is not mad - sounds insane right?

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My Opinion
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Described as a cross between Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest it is easy to see where these comparisons come from. With Poppy unable to prove she's not mad until she is properly diagnosed and assigned a level of madness she is literally stuck in a Catch-22 situation - stuck in a maddening infinite loop with no signs of escape.

As for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the similarities are clear - both told from the view of a patient who's world is forever changed due to the arrival of a person who will not conform to the rules. The only difference for me here is that whilst Ken Kesey never spent any time in a mental institution, Clare Allen did actually spend 10 years as an outpatient after suffering a breakdown aged 25 and you wonder how much of Poppy Shakespeare is actually autobiographical or at the very least based upon actual experiences.

The thing I love about this book is the way it is told through the eyes of an unreliable narrator - I kept getting echoes from Catcher in the Rye where you find yourself wondering just what was real and what was a figment of our narrator's imagination which creates a wonderfully surreal and disjointed atmosphere which can only emphasise the confusion in the mind of N and add to the unpredictable nature of the story.

In fact there is also a slight feel of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time", with the way the chapters are given overly elaborate titles which are more a summary of what will be coming rather than a proper title and a slight OCD feel to the ordering of them. This feeling of confusion continues with some of N's language such as the constantly repeating phrase "Do you know what I'm saying" which is very noticeable throughout the narrative.

As a result of only viewing the story from N's perspective it is difficult to judge how accurate a view we are really getting on the British mental health system and all the supposed flaws much to the patients' detriment, but I suspect that it must resemble experiences Clare Allen went through during her own stay and so is probably quite realistic, despite the satirical spin that is put on it due to the nature of the narrator. It may well be exaggerated, but the problems are definitely there and need to be highlighted.

The character of N is very cleverly developed throughout the story through the style of language used and the use of sporadic memories and childhood anecdotes to subtly build her history and give you an understanding of how any why she is the way she is. With very bad grammar and the use of a lot of profanities there is a suggestion of low intelligence, but this is very sharply contradicted by the perceptive insights that N drops into her narration when describing the people and situations around her which give great depth to her character.

It is through N's insights that much of the humour in the story is gleaned and there are quite a few laugh out loud moments (which I learnt can be quite embarrassing when you're on a crowded train) which contrast against the darker, more serious subject matter of this book with great effect. Often it is just the descriptions of the antics of the other patients or "dribblers" as they are described which create the laughs.

So, even though the novel is called Poppy Shakespeare, it is actually more about the life of N and how the character of Poppy Shakespeare has a poignant effect on her life.

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Conclusion
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Poppy Shakespeare was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and I think these nominations were well deserved given the clever and complex style of writing Clare Allan has used to create such a moving story.

The nature of the narrator makes it a surreal and unpredictable story, and yet very humorous despite the tragic elements to the story, which has been clearly greatly influenced by the author's own experiences. Poppy Shakespeare is a gripping and compelling novel in the same vein as other novels such as Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that enjoys these type of novels.

Summary: Extremely gripping and compelling - an excellent debut