More You Ignore Me [Paperback]

Jo Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2010

A genuinely funny and original novel about mental illness, growing up and parental breakdown from much-loved comedienne Jo Brand. Alice is five, and convinced she needs five personalities to cope. Her family, tucked in a cottage in deepest Herefordshire, are a bit weird. Her mother Gina is obsessed with the weatherman on the local news and when she climbs naked onto the roof with Alice's pet guinea pig in her arms, she is whisked off to the local psychiatric hospital. Keith, Alice's father, tries to keep calm, but his patience is severely tested by his in-laws. The only thing that gives Alice's hope is her love for Morrissey of The Smiths...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brand's (It's Different for Girls) latest lacks focus as she alternates between the voices of a devoted husband, Keith, his schizophrenic wife, Gina, and their daughter, Alice. The story, set in a small English town, is best served when Alice dispels her concerns about the psychiatric illness that has left her mother, Gina, in a medicated fog throughout most of Alice's young life. Alice's voice is the most poignant and fleshed out, and she lends a certain charm to the tale, as does the clever twist of Alice's obsession with musician Morrissey, who first hit the music charts with his band the Smiths in the early '80s when Alice was a young teen. Her somber existence is mimicked in his music, which gives a solid sense of the period and Alice's thoughts. Alice's path provides an interesting insight into how a child deals with a parent's mental illness, but the book as a whole misses the mark, pulling in too many directions. And the introduction of Gina's family, an uneducated country bumpkin clan, only adds to the confusion. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Drawing on her experience as a psychiatric nurse and stand-up comic, BBC writer Brand’s hilarious and heartfelt novel tells the story of teenage Alice in a small town in northern England. Alice is teased at school as the madwoman’s daughter after her mother is taken to the psychiatric ward after she stands naked on her roof and announces her crush on the local TV weatherman. The farcical treatment of mental illness as weird entertainment might get a bit much, except that everyone is a bit crazy, even Alice’s classmates, who are refugees from what seem like happy, traditional nuclear families. Her boyfriend, Mark, runs from his abusive dad, who beats Mark for protesting the presence of hunters in the woods. And Alice has a wild crush on a pop star: Is she turning into Mom? Mom is no trouble when she is heavily sedated, but Alice wants to free the zombie. The farce always blends with sorrow, and the sense of cartoon families everywhere makes for touching sitcom drama. --Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Headline Review (January 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755322320
• ISBN-13: 978-0755322329
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,434,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars intriguing family drama, June 2, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The More You Ignore Me: A Novel (Paperback)

In Herfordshire, England, Alice wonders what a normal family is. Her maternal grandparents prefer intoxication rather than sobering sobriety. Her mother Gina is either in a pharmaceutical induced stupor or a schizophrenic miasma. Her dad Keith tries to maintain a modicum of normalcy, but living in a cottage with two drunks and a lunatic who prefers to run the streets naked is asking a lot of any person; so the lass created five personas like an actress and not like split personalities as she knows her roles she uses to deal with her family and the neighbors.

When Gina is taken away to the psychiatric hospital for posing nude on the roof after the meteorologist declined her kind offer of a tryst, Keith tries to help his daughter. Gina has fears that she is a chip off the maternal block as her grandparents are considered drunken terrorists by the neighbors and her mom when not confined runs nude in the streets of Herfordshire. Adding to her concerns re her own mental state is her obsession with the singer Morrissey of Smith and Mark while her father struggles with caring for his two females and his attraction to Marie Henty.

Rotating perspective over a couple of decades, this is an intriguing family drama as readers see deeply how Keith and Alice cope with Gina and the grandparents. The story line is summed up with a strong climatic revelatory Dunk that will open the readers' eyes as it does the morose "This Charming Man" Keith. Although the troubles caused by the grandparents detract from an otherwise profound family drama by adding too much tsuris to the mix. Still readers will relish The More You Ignore Me (The Closer I Get) as "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" regardless of what happens to loved ones.

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars A captivating homely story well told, December 13, 2010

By 

Steven P - See all my reviews

This review is from: The More You Ignore Me: A Novel (Paperback)

I wanted to keep on reading to see what happens next and I laughed often. The story is heartwarming and was always easy to read. Not the heaviest literature in any way but a good captivating homely story well told. Thanks Jo.