Customer Reviews

98 Reasons for Being

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A moving and richly human novel of depth and understanding, at once a psychological and a historical novel.
Claire Dudman offers an original and offbeat perspective of life in a Frankfurt assylum in the 1850s.

A Jewish girl, Hannah Meyer, labelled as a nymphomaniac, is admitted to a Frankfurt insane assylum , in a deep and extremely debilitating state of melancholia. Dr Heinrich Hoffman, a Frankfurt physician who runs the sanatorium, and also the well known author of the book of children's poems known as Sturmwetpeter, undertakes to treat her, all treatments fail until Dr Hoffman patiently talks to her about his own life and patiently coaxes, slowly coaxes her out of her crippling melancholic state and teaches her to talk and respond again.

Her own inner thoughts and recounting of her own inner thoughts are recounted in italics, used in an intelligent and pertinent way.
Deeply in love with a German gentile who woos her and secretly marries her, and then cruelly spurns her, with strong anti-Semitic words, this incident has brought on her depressive state. The novel also focuses on the staff and other inmates of the asylum.
The novel also focuses on the staff and other inamtes of the assylum.

It is at once a window into 19th century Germany, the progressive thinking of Dr Hoffman, the inner world of the mentally ill and the anti-Semitism of the time.

An evocative novel despair and hope, love and cruelty, and ultimately the search for purpose and the reason for being, hence the name 98 reasons for being.

After the first several pages, I almost gave up. Reading italics seems so gimicky and needless. But no - it's a sly and clever way to make you see the story from two points of view, the doctor's and the patient's. The time period is interesting, the characters are interesting, the plot, while simple enough, has a true feeling. I would slow down, savor this, enjoy.

Overall, an excellent read. I found the characters to be extremely dynamic and multidimensional. The story was also at times heartbreaking as well as uplifting. Yet, it was the writing style that made this book exceptional to read. There were sections of narration that were interrupted by case studies performed by the psychiatrist as well as the thoughts inside the main character's mind. Though I would not go as far to say that it is postmodern, the way that the story is presented is certainly nontraditional.
Basically, it is the story of a Jewish girl who is brought into a mental institution because she refuses to talk. Through her treatment, she encourages the doctor and other patients to open up and free themselves from their own demons. Of course, not all are saved and there are numerous characters that can be deemed as "not good". Still, the complexities of the characters makes them seem more real than the paper on which they are described.

This novel is not quick to read, and not a book that you can't put down. The story is intelligent and intricate, the details are not laid out simply, but sometimes need to be processed, through the reading. The intricacy and the multiple first person narratives reminded me of Faulkner. I think the author did a great job of bringing a time period, subject matter, and characters to life.