Librarian vs Reader: The Girls at 17 Swann Street
Librarian: I feel that this is a book that librarians should keep on their shelves. It feels important, and I can't help but feel that it will be exactly the right book for someone, somewhere. I just don't know who that person will be.
I also think that this might be a good book for book clubs. There's a lot to unpack here, and I think that there's probably a good amount of discussion that can come from the story.
Reader: This is an odd book for me to read. I spent most of it not sure what I thought of it. Honestly, I still don't know for sure. It's strange and melancholy, and occasionally a little didactic. It explores a world that I knew nothing about, and am honestly not sure I want to know anything more about. It was interesting, yet also disturbing, and at times I felt like I was watching some kind of disaster that I just couldn't look away from. I didn't end with that feeling, but I definitely felt it throughout the book.
One thing that struck me was just dehumanizing the treatment that these woman go through is. Everything they are is forcibly stripped away and they're reshaped into something new. And I understand that that's because the person they was before was someone that was unhealthy. Yet it feels almost cruel to completely destroy a person in order to attempt to save them. You understand why they do it, and yet you understand why they patients resist too. It's not that they don't want to get better, it's that getting better forces them to become someone not themselves, and they aren't sure they want that. It's wonderfully, understandably human. You can feel the pain on both sides of the equation, and it's horrible and it's beautiful.
I'm glad I read this book, but I don't think that I'll ever have any desire to do so again.
I also think that this might be a good book for book clubs. There's a lot to unpack here, and I think that there's probably a good amount of discussion that can come from the story.
Reader: This is an odd book for me to read. I spent most of it not sure what I thought of it. Honestly, I still don't know for sure. It's strange and melancholy, and occasionally a little didactic. It explores a world that I knew nothing about, and am honestly not sure I want to know anything more about. It was interesting, yet also disturbing, and at times I felt like I was watching some kind of disaster that I just couldn't look away from. I didn't end with that feeling, but I definitely felt it throughout the book.
One thing that struck me was just dehumanizing the treatment that these woman go through is. Everything they are is forcibly stripped away and they're reshaped into something new. And I understand that that's because the person they was before was someone that was unhealthy. Yet it feels almost cruel to completely destroy a person in order to attempt to save them. You understand why they do it, and yet you understand why they patients resist too. It's not that they don't want to get better, it's that getting better forces them to become someone not themselves, and they aren't sure they want that. It's wonderfully, understandably human. You can feel the pain on both sides of the equation, and it's horrible and it's beautiful.
I'm glad I read this book, but I don't think that I'll ever have any desire to do so again.