Customer Reviews

The Snake Pit

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This groundbreaking novel is based on Mary Jane Ward's personal experiences in the Rockland State Hospital (here renamed Juniper Hill) after suffering a nervous breakdown. The story told is heartbreaking in its blunt simplicity - the lead character, Virginia, is not sure where she is at first, or why she is there, and the reasons for her confusion become painfully clear as one turns the pages.

The point of view changes abruptly from first to third-person, and this was disconcerting for me as a reader. This is the only reason that I've given the book four stars rather than five. As I consider it further, it may be that Ward chose this disjointed narrative deliberately, in order to establish Virginia's feeling of constantly having the world tilt around her.

I suspect that even this grim narrative of institutional life is rosier than the reality, but this is terrifying enough. Dangerous patients, nurses who have grown immune to the suffering around them, and draconian "therapies" all play a part in Virginia's experience. Just the luxury of having a dry bed to sleep in, or an uninterrupted period of private time in a powder room, is enough to give her joy and the illusion that she is getting close to freedom.

As the clouds start to clear for Virginia, the narrative becomes more crisp and I realized that she was inching back to the "real world." I was rooting for her to make a complete recovery and to resume her life.

Sadly, Mary Jane Ward was hospitalized three more times after the institutionalization that inspired this novel. I understand that she still managed to write several books, including two others that reference mental illness, and I am now keenly interested in those stories.

This would be the second copy of The Snake Pit that I've purchased as a gift for friends. It's a fantastic read. Great period piece if you're a fan of the 1930's/40's, but the writing and characters stand the test of time and the plot lends itself to a contemporary feel. I'm surprised that no one has modernized the 1948 movie (also a classic and worth checking out).

Read it!

I agree that this is an interesting, personal perspective on life in a public mental hospital in the era before before deinstitutionalization. The book is easy to read and hard to put down. It avoids the trite idealization of the all-knowing therapist and complete, explainable recovery that you see in the movie- a more realistic portrayal of mental illness and its treatment is provided instead. Still, keep in mind that even this more realistic version of "Juniper Hill" has much better conditions than most public institutions of the day. The author makes this point herself in her follow-up book, Counterclockwise.

It's hard not to envision the Oscar-winning movie while reading Snake Pit, but the book provides less Hollywood romance and a greater sense of the protagonist's disorientation. Her struggle to swim toward sanity's shore is palpable. The prose is terse but not always gripping; yet it convinces. An insightful, personal documentation of psychiatric institutions in its day and of mental illness in any era.