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A review by fallingdownrabbitholes
The Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Coleman
4.0
Reading this book felt like a slow descent into a dream. As if I was slowing floating into a fitful sleep filled with images that don’t seem to fit together but are fascinating to watch. I was grateful for the introduction provided by Claire - Louise Bennet at the beginning of the newly republished version by Faber and Faber. It helped provide context to this story. The author Emily Holmes Coleman’s real life experiences in a mental institution in the 1930’s helped shape this book into a haunting tale of a woman’s battle to piece her life back together again.
As I started to read this book, the writing seemed fragmented and difficult to read. The language used was abrupt and almost poetic as we learn about the main character Marthe Gail, a women who has just entered motherhood. It is apparent in the first few chapters that she has suffered some sort of breakdown and is confined in the walls of a mental institution. At the beginning of the book, Marthe almost seems childlike and wanders through her new world without much regard for the consequences of her actions. However, her desire to be reconnected with her husband seems to help push her towards recovery. The lack of mental health resources is evident in this book as Marthe endures strange treatments that are supposed to help her get better.
The language in this book becomes more clear as Marthe starts to get better. As she moves towards understanding her own condition, shame and embarrassment follows. When she tries to find her place back in the world, it seems she will be forever tainted by her experience in this mental institution. Even today, there is a stigma surrounding mental health and seeking help when you feel in over your head. Marthe’s experiences that take place in the 1930’s are an important addition to the growing literature of trauma experienced in mental health institutions. I hope we can learn from stories such as these and as a society seek to understand how we can help create settings that provide the proper supports for people that find themselves in situations such as Marthe Gail and Elizabeth Holmes Coleman did. I do want to put out a warning that the content of this book may be disturbing for some as it includes unsettling descriptions of styles of psychological treatments that individuals used in the past in an attempt to ‘treat’ patients in these institutions.
Thank you so much to Net Galley for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this book.
As I started to read this book, the writing seemed fragmented and difficult to read. The language used was abrupt and almost poetic as we learn about the main character Marthe Gail, a women who has just entered motherhood. It is apparent in the first few chapters that she has suffered some sort of breakdown and is confined in the walls of a mental institution. At the beginning of the book, Marthe almost seems childlike and wanders through her new world without much regard for the consequences of her actions. However, her desire to be reconnected with her husband seems to help push her towards recovery. The lack of mental health resources is evident in this book as Marthe endures strange treatments that are supposed to help her get better.
The language in this book becomes more clear as Marthe starts to get better. As she moves towards understanding her own condition, shame and embarrassment follows. When she tries to find her place back in the world, it seems she will be forever tainted by her experience in this mental institution. Even today, there is a stigma surrounding mental health and seeking help when you feel in over your head. Marthe’s experiences that take place in the 1930’s are an important addition to the growing literature of trauma experienced in mental health institutions. I hope we can learn from stories such as these and as a society seek to understand how we can help create settings that provide the proper supports for people that find themselves in situations such as Marthe Gail and Elizabeth Holmes Coleman did. I do want to put out a warning that the content of this book may be disturbing for some as it includes unsettling descriptions of styles of psychological treatments that individuals used in the past in an attempt to ‘treat’ patients in these institutions.
Thank you so much to Net Galley for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this book.