Memoirs from the Asylum

Justin Sayne Columbus, Ohio. Streaming and Download help. If you like Justin Sayne, you may also like:. Motivator by High Spirits. Roaring, riff-heavy, triumphant hard rock that emphasizes melody and harmony while still pulverizing with its power. Epic, expansive hard rock from Perihelion that pairs post-metal expansiveness with skyscraping vocal melodies.

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Bangs and crashes of doors and tempers provide erratic tympani. One cannot dance in the asylum. However much one may whirl about the dayroom, it is not dancing. Music, real music, requires freedom. Steve Lindahl — Author of Motherless Soul Oct 18, Martha Cheves rated it really liked it. I go through the sequence: If something seems too difficult, screw it. In the bigger picture, my life went from bad to worse. I was simply being schizophrenic. Disabilitied, Social Securitied, and indulged by parents hiding their loathing and frustration.

The more I read of Memoirs From the Asylum, the more I understood how these people deal with their fears of life. How they are able to withdraw into themselves. Making a safe haven that allows admittance only to those that they invite. After entering their own personal world, is there ever the possibility of coming back? And if they do come back into the real world, can the cope with a normal life? Do they really want to?

Kenneth Weene has so much insight into the minds of these people, leaving me with a feeling of "wish" and "dread" Wishing I could sometimes slip into my own little world that would allow me to forget all of my problems but Dread because to go there requires you to relinquish control of so many things we are accustomed to. This was one very intense book that I have to admit that I found quite interesting and quite enjoyable.

Jun 29, Philip Nork rated it really liked it. How will she respond when the crack gets repaired? Buford Abrose is the first year resident who also has seen his share of problems. The closer he tries to understand the patients, the farther he falls from his own life. The unfeeling workers of the asylum add to the misery and complications these, and the other characters, of the book experience. Their answers normally include medications and isolation for the patients…or is it for themselves? There is a feeling of connection between these characters that becomes apparent as the book goes on.

Although they all react in their own way, the connection that they share is that of fear. Possibly a death of someone close, maybe the physical abuse of a parent or friend…something made these people afraid and wanting to escape. Now that they did, all they really want is freedom, whatever that means to them. In the unique style of narration, Weene allows us to see what really happens in the minds of those that are institutionalized.

Sometimes the book was hard to read, using words and imagery that the normal person may not understand or relate to and was lacking an actual plot, but somehow at the end it all comes together. Sep 03, Mary rated it it was amazing. Not only was this a fascinating read, the writing was incredibly good. Weene's points of view were of both patients and staff in a mental hospital. They display such insight you feel like you are completely in their minds, which at times is a terrifying place to be. What an uncomfortable feeling to hear the thoughts of the patients through the conversations playing out in their heads, and the how they act out their frustrations to such thoughts.

Very often we hear in the minds of the staff, self-serving snippets, generally found in the ones who hold the power. This book takes you on a journey through the modern day version of an insane asylum and I wonder how much progress we have made. It seems like there are no happy endings in the real lives of these patients. Thank you, Kenneth Weene, for bringing it to our attention. Mary Firmin, author of Deadly Pleasures Jun 27, Christoph Fischer rated it really liked it.

Snippets with perspectives on nurses and inmates alike highlight many rather important points and messages that people should really know more about. Society's view on madness, on the term asylum or sanctuary, the helplessness of the patients, the overwhelming challenge of the nurses and doctors to name but a few. Weene does a great job at portraying some false perceptions and errors in "Memoirs From he Asylum" by Kenneth Weene is an important and well composed piece of work about mental asylums.

Weene does a great job at portraying some false perceptions and errors in the way the system works. I am giving this four stars because I felt that in light of the many well justified criticisms there could have been more emphasis of possible improvements and a slightly more benevolent approach when talking about care staff. Maybe because I know one very good mental health nurse and have seen him in action I might be too personally guided and sensitive in this judgement. Aug 25, Gloria Pearson-Vasey rated it really liked it. Kenneth Weene relates aspects of life in a state hospital through the eyes of a patient stranded there partially through his own apathy.

We also meet a resident who, in attempting to make a difference in the lives of his patients, becomes drawn into the drabness of routine existence. Staff and patients are memorably and disturbingly portrayed in this fiction drawn from reality. As I'm the author, I guess I should tell people that this is a powerful read but they have to learn that for themselves. Nov 15, Clayton Bye rated it really liked it Shelves: Jul 06, Jason Dias rated it really liked it Shelves: Ken spent some decades writing this and it shows a little - it's a bit episodic, and the plot is narrower than that story.

The story can be hard to follow because it's from weird perspectives, and that's really the point of the enterprise. There are unreliable narrators telling unreliable narratives, hallucinations and delusions. A real attempt at empathy for folks outside consensus reality. I think Ken and I had some similar experiences. My work at the hospital was after a lot of cle Good story.

My work at the hospital was after a lot of clean-up and regulation, and still I knew some of the same archetypes as in here. That made it a tough read: Oct 19, Cheryl rated it liked it. Not as good as I had hoped. Aug 22, Julie Weinstein rated it it was amazing. The characters in all their crazed out existences question what it means to be human and what happens when our greatest fears trap us from living.

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Like its movie predecessors this novel pits the inmates against the staff, but therein lays the excellent dichotomy that author, Kenneth Weene has developed. In Memoirs of the Asylum some of the staff members will view the mentally insane as mere furniture objects, yet others will see their own vulnerabilities and frailties mirrored within the patients.

In the view of the narrator, the inmates are controlled by whatever means necessary including, excessive medication, shock treatments and even lobotomies so that the inmates are kept out of sight from society and to do this the staff must be willing and able to lie. Yet, neither inmates nor staff fits very well in this pre-ordained script.

The characters in this novel tend to be a messy, vibrant lot, a point made in all its various discussions of excrement.

Memoirs From The Asylum | Justin Sayne

For in our most smelly states in the view of the narrator, we are our much authentic selves. Here in the proverbial restroom there is no escape from our basic and most primitive selves. This sense of no escape is a central theme in this novel. The more the patients and the staff try to escape from themselves the more they find themselves at each harrowing turn.

While the book presents a virtual kaleidoscope of characters losing their minds and ultimately climaxing with a symphonic roar at the full moon as patients are united in their madness which culminates in a murder. This book is anything but gratuitous in its depiction of violence or madness.

Memoirs From the Asylum

The character we know the most is the narrator who is at once an observer, and a patient suffering from schizophrenia, but more to the heart he is a character making sense of the loss of his best friend and suffering from immense grief. He is not the only mourner in this novel. Marilyn, the catatonic patient is alternately trapped between a variety of layers of grief for her mother, a lost love and lost dog. She is the silent hero.

Her catatonic state has a transformative affect on the new medical resident, Dr. He is at once fascinated, mesmerized and disgusted with her state of non-existence, what is essentially a waking death. Yet, this notion of not quite living is symptomatic of many of the inmates and even staff members. But it is Marilyn that has the most transformative effect on the patient, Alan who finds her captivating and representative of the ideal woman, one that is pure and unmoved by the world around her.

Yet, her state is anything but un-removed. She is living in the crack in her room in ways she is afraid to do in the living world. It is there that she can face her own fears, her own tormentors over and over. Even though her mini-conquests occur in her mind and in silences they have the un-gluing effect on Dr. Buford Ambrose who questions his very fiber as he feels helpless and unable to cure her and unable to save his crumbling marriage. Yet at the same time he is growing to care for her. And in his near paternal love for her, a family is formed, one with both him and Alan as her dutiful suitor.

Alan is the peeping tom, the crazy philosopher and the man who masturbates at will in front of any and everyone including circus elephants. And as Marilyn seeps into a deep stupor under the heavy cloak of meds, she is both the hero to herself as she faces her demons once and for all, yet physically is the victim of a rape. It is at their collective finest hours that Alan, though he is not the father chooses to be her husband and that Marilyn breaks through the walls of her existence and says in her own words to Dr. To learn more about the authors visit their respective websites, http: Nov 30, Vonnie Faroqui rated it it was amazing.

Memoirs from the Asylum Author: Vonnie Faroqui for WITS Memoirs from the Asylum author Kenneth Weene has, with many twists and phobic turns, succeeded in writing a moving and fascinating exploration of the inner workings of the insane mind. The vision of life depicted within and around these 3 main characters makes a case for a larger societal madness as the author explores the bureaucracy surrounding and encapsulating the insane and their caregivers. As uncomfortable as some aspects of the book may be, these same passages hold illuminating power.

Well crafted, Memoirs from the Asylum has a developed plot line and believable story progression. The best aspect of the book is how the author has written from the perspective or inner thoughts of the characters. It is obvious that the author is writing from a deeper understanding of human motivation and psychosis. His treatment of his characters is compassionate and without judgment allowing the reader to formulate their own opinions and confront their own preconceptions and prejudices. At times the book is disturbing as it addresses and reveals many destructive societal attitudes and inhumanities.

The author has skillfully lifted the veil of willful disinterest surrounding the mentally ill and shone a spot light on the role played by the greater culture in perpetuating and growing madness. Full of memorable characters that are as tragic as they are comedic, this book proves itself in the great tradition of writing.

Disturbingly honest and often graphic in nature Memoirs from the Asylum is an entertaining and enlightening read for adults. Sep 01, Dianne Ascroft rated it really liked it. The story is told by three characters: Their lives interweave throughout the story. In a traditional novel action drives the plot. Readers expect something to happen. In this book there are a few dramatic events but most of the time not much happens. The characters wait and watch the world like caged animals — or psychiatric patients. Nevertheless, the novel is alive with their thoughts and feelings, drawing the reader into the story.

The author takes readers on a fascinating journey inside the minds of patients and doctors, revealing a world that most people know little about. It often jars and is uncomfortably realistic in its portrayal of life in an asylum. There are many tragic characters and some shocking events in it; the characters cope with life as best they can. Some characters have happy endings, many do not.

The diverse characters have believable voices. From the beginning of each chapter it is evident who the narrator is. The structure of the book moves the story steadily on without appearing to do so. As readers get to know each character the climax of the novel will be almost predictable but it is no less effective for this. This novel is very different from my usual reading choice. I found myself intrigued, shocked, saddened and, at times, heartened as I read. I became engrossed in its world.

Mar 22, Becky Allen rated it really liked it.

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Like Chia Pets sprouting helplessly fake looking greenery, these images that flood out of my unconscious are covered with meanings. Set within a mental hospital, the novel follows closely to three people within, an unnamed narrator, Marilyn the woman in a catatonic stupor and Dr. Buford Abrose a first year resident psychiatrist. The novel deals with madness that is self-created to fit in Like Chia Pets sprouting helplessly fake looking greenery, these images that flood out of my unconscious are covered with meanings. The novel deals with madness that is self-created to fit in with the residents of the institution, madness brought on by abuse, madness that is state-created.

Several of the patients in this novel, we come to learn, are placed within the hospital for the wrong reasons. Such as, Jamul, a young teen that was raised in the state instiutuions, abandoned by his parents, he remains at the hospital because he has no where else to go. The patients suffer abuse, neglect and state budgets. The novel is filled with sadness, the stories are tragic and the voice of the novel keeps the reader from connecting with the patients.