Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - All Among the Barley

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison

6 reviews

carolinebl's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

I loved this book; the writing was brilliant. Melissa Harrison’s background in nature writing makes her perfectly equipped to capture the countryside in all its shades of light and dark. I went into this novel blind, which was the right choice.

It attempts to find a middle ground, merging the troubles of the harvest, politics, mental health and childhood into womanhood. The setting in 1933/34 was one ripe for exploration. I wish that Connie’s fascism was explored further at the end, if Edie had began to understand why John found her so dangerous. The balance between outside and inside wasn’t quite achieved. Everything climaxed at once, but Connie’s meeting felt less cohesive with the fire and Edie’s psychosis. It was still a strong ending, more realistic than the positive one I had hoped for (I thought that her interjections meant that she had moved away - not to a psychiatric hospital!).

I feel I’m still digesting everything. I didn’t cry.

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fluffy1st's review

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

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aliwhaley's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I knew nothing about this book going into it, other than the fact that this was a nature-writing classic. And I’m glad I knew nothing.

The writing is lyrical and very specific, trees and birds are named as elms and skylarks, which constantly reminds you of this girl’s intimate knowledge of the land. There is an enormous amount of detail in the processes and techniques of farming, and in a way it’s hard to believe that this was written so recently when the details of 1920s farming are so meticulously laid out.

And then, as a novel, it is a strange thing. On the surface, very little happens. But, we’re reading from the perspective of a 14 year old girl. She wasn’t alive during the 1st world war, but her parents and siblings were, so the shadow of the war hangs over the book. There are plenty of things that she is not aware of, but you the reader do pick up on. And so, there’s this feeling that so much is going on in the dropped lines and quiet allusions that pass this little girl by.

I loved the moment when Edie suddenly broke and revealed all that happened after the fete (drunken father breaking the vase) that she never told the reader. It was so powerful - we thought she was suppressing the sexual assault, but really she was suppressing much more, and suppressing it so far that even the reader didn’t know

When I was reading it, I felt like the ending (fire, politics) was out of step with the rest of the book (subtle and quiet), but thinking back on it now, it had been brewing all along, and the drama of the fire and the political fist fight were the only way to end the myriad fissures and problems that had been bubbling under the surface the whole time.

The book was also a really interesting portrayal of mental illness and OCD-like tendencies, from the inside. Almost reminded me of the Yellow Wallpaper in that way

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