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    Umbrella
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    Umbrella
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    Umbrella
    Ebook457 pages9 hours

    Umbrella

    By Will Self

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012

    For half a century Audrey Death has been in a state of semi-consciousness. Severed from the world of the living after falling victim to Encephalitis lethargica, she has languished in Friern Barnet Mental Hospital. Then, in 1971, maverick psychiatrist Dr Zack Busner arrives.

    Audrey's experiences of a bygone Edwardian London: her socialist lover, her involvement with the Suffragists, and her work in a munitions factory during the First World War, alternate with Dr Busner's attempts to bring her back to life with a new and powerful drug. His investigations lead to revelations that are both shocking and tragic, and which will return to haunt him decades later.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateAug 3, 2012
    ISBN9781408837634
    Unavailable
    Umbrella
    Author

    Will Self

    Will Self is an English novelist, journalist, political commentator and television personality. He is the author of ten novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas, and five collections of non-fiction writing.

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    Reviews for Umbrella

    3.5/5

    110 ratings11 reviews

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    • 2/5
      (Original Review, September 30th 2012)And people are entertained by different things. Some people are entertained by cat videos. Others are entertained by football or motor racing. Others are entertained by mathematical or philosophical problems. Others are entertained by jigsaw puzzles or their literary equivalents. Others are entertained by sophisticated use of narrative technique. Some people may be entertained by all of these: they have rich mental lives, with varying sources of entertainment.What made Umberto Eco's Il Nome della Rosa / The Name of the Rose such a great novel was that it combined so many types of entertainment: detective thriller, historical novel, literary allusions as a puzzle, psychological novel, a bit of sex, lots of violence and horror, discourses on philosophy and mediaeval aesthetics, and more. Readers could read it on the level appropriate for them; and if you could appreciate several levels, so much the better.There is an absolute place for literature that is complex and hard but you have to then question the purpose of an award. Should the booker prize be to transcend excellent enjoyable books to the mass market (rewarding the author / publisher and ultimately the reader). Or should it be to reward a small elitist group of reviewers and showcase their views?Personally I feel this year is more about the latter than the former.In the case of Self it was revenge; it was intravenously injecting the psychotic rarefied "heights" of the imperial British and European elite's academy with a heavy overdose of their own medicine. What was the point?
    • 3/5
      Didn't finish. I admire a book of this popularity taking risks with form and being a bit experimental; credit to the Booker shortlist for including it. But for me, it's just not well done. Stream-of-conciousness is where every teenage creative writer starts - it's hard to do well, and setting it in a psychiatric hospital is just inviting comparison to the worst excesses of angsty adolescent individualism. For me, there's not enough here to elevate this novel above that level, particularly when Self's obsession with long and technical vocabulary masks any actual emotional complexity that would do so. Only read 60 pages or so, so only a partial assessment.
    • 4/5
      This book was about mental illness and how it has been treated through WWI through 1977 in Britain. It focuses primarily on Audrey Death - a misdiagnosed patient in a mental hospital and her modern day psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Zachary Busner. She has been catatonic since 1918 and institutionalized until Dr. Busner finds her. In her mind, she is living out different scenes from her past. Through the book, we learn of her father and brothers, her work at the munitions factory, as well as her political leanings as a socialist and sufferagette. The effects of WWI and the industrial revolution run throughout the book. The theme of umbrellas runs through the book as well - whether Audrey was a typist at the Paragon Parasol factory, or Zach was musing about the disposable umbrella of today, they weave throughout the prose.

      The interesting part of the novel is that as Dr. Busner increasingly recognizes the signs of mental illness in himself, his family, and the general population as a whole, while he finds a solution physical for Audrey and patients similar to her which he gathers in Ward 20. He stages an intervention and an awakening which for some has been 60 years long. The novel weaves together the storylines from the brothers, Audrey, Busner, a former doctor at the hospital, Audrey's father, and one brother's mistress into a complete tapestry - an oroborous that comes full circle by the close of the novel.

      The book is a clear testament to the lackadaisical attitude that many doctors take to pushing pharmaceuticals down patients throats along with a refill and repeat behaviour. Having been on the receiving of this treatment, I don't find it very amusing, so for me, that facet of the story struck home and was very personal in a negative way, but Dr. Busner bucks this system to do the right thing for his patients even though he gets trouble from the administration and the orderlies.

      To do the book justice, you either need to have the appropriate psychiatric reference material, or get the ebook version so you have access to the dictionary for all the uncommon medical terminology. Without these definitions, the book is incomplete.

      As a slice of history prior to WWI and during the war as well as during the industrial revolution, this book is like slices in time for extremely complex characters. Life was different then, and yet in many ways the same. The imagery is quite stunning and fully accessible for each character - whether in the trenches in France, having tea in an upper class parlor, on a golf course, or at the munitions factory, every scene was beautifully described in both words and sounds. Sounds and songs play a consistent role throughout the prose. This novel is complex. It is weighty and well written with serious messages about quality of life, the medical establishment,technology and progress - or not.

      Mr. Self has created what I would consider a piece of literature that should stand the test of time.
    • 4/5
      Will Self writes with industrial strength stream of consciousness that makes reading a challenge. But the imagery and detail in this book is some of the best I have read in recent memory. Some aspects of the story line were reminiscent of the novel "Awakenings" by Oliver Sachs but the writing style could be no more different. Was rightly short listed for the Booker prize.
    • 1/5
      I really couldn't get into this book. I was only half way through when the library loan ran out and I decided not to renew. I found it rather unpleasantly crude.
    • 4/5
      Although I began my trek though this marvelous novel in confusion and doubt, eventually everything clicked and after about fifty pages I was hooked. It was as if the book revealed itself gradually and then grabbed you ferociously and sped you onward. It is an indictment of the treatment of the mentally ill and psychiatry, an immersion into the ravages of war on both civilians and soldiers, and a pressured study of the human condition. I loved it and would highly recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Nice...!!Although I began my trek though this marvelous novel in confusion and doubt, eventually everything clicked and after about fifty pages I was hooked. It was as if the book revealed itself gradually and then grabbed you ferociously
    • 1/5
      so good
    • 5/5
      ?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Ein Regenschirm, den man nicht so leicht vergissthttp://literaturundfeuilleton.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/ein-regenschirm-den-man-nicht-so-leicht-vergisst/Die Europäische Schlafkrankheit und ihre Symptome erscheinen so grausam wie die Erfindung aus einem Endzeitroman, doch tatsächlich erkrankten während der Pandemie zwischen 1917 und 1927 rund 5 Millionen Menschen daran. Ein Drittel der Erkrankten starb im direkten Zusammenhang mit der Entzündung ihres Gehirns. Bereits 1973 hat Oliver Sacks mit Awakenings ein Buch über diese Kranken und ihren Arzt geschrieben. Wo Sacks den Leser mit Fakten und Fotos absetzt, holt Will Selfs Regenschirm ihn ab – und lässt ihn verstört und nachdenklich zurück.von ANNA-LENA THIELDr. Zachary Busner und Audrey Death sind die Protagonisten einer Erzählung, um die die Leser kämpfen müssen. Die Handlung von Regenschirm – überschrieben mit dem Joyce’schen Motto „Ein Bruder wird so leicht vergessen wie ein Regenschirm“ – spielt zum größten Teil in der bis 1993 real existierenden psychiatrischen Einrichtung Friern Hospital. Auch hier finden sich vereinzelte Fälle von Überlebenden der Europäischen Schlafkrankheit, obwohl man sie kaum als solche bezeichnen kann: Sie vegetieren in krampfhafter Starre oder zielloser Bewegung, in den meisten Fällen völlig unfähig zur Kommunikation mit der Außenwelt, vor sich hin. Hier begegnen sich Arzt und Patientin, hier verbinden oder besser verheddern sich ihre Geschichten und Gedankenströme.Audrey Death ist seit 1922 Insassin, wird wie viele andere Patienten weniger behandelt als bloß ruhig gestellt. In einem Zustand somnambuler Trance schlurft sie durch die Gänge der Anstalt, die mit dem längsten Flur Britanniens genug Platz zum sinnlosen Kreisen anbietet. Audrey ist sich ihrer Umstände nicht bewusst, aber sie ist nicht ‚Hirn‘-tot, ihre Gedanken eröffnen dem Leser Einblicke in ihre Kindheit und ihr bewegtes Leben vor der Krankheit, aus dem sie ohne Warnung gerissen wurde.Auftritt Zack Busner: Dessen Gedankenstrom empfängt den Leser im Buch und wird ihn auch wieder daraus entlassen. Er ist der Erinnernde, der uns mit auf eine Reise durch Paraldehyd geschwängerte Tage nimmt in einem Krankenhaus, das sich der Verwahrung und Verwaltung der Patienten verschrieben hat. Eher zufällig denn schicksalhaft fällt die erste Begegnung zwischen Zack und Audrey aus. Der stets philosophierende Doktor ist verwundert über Audrey: Ihre Diagnose passt nicht zu ihren Symptomen und ohne einen konkreten Grund dafür nennen zu können, übt die zerbrechliche Alte einen morbiden Charme auf ihn aus, das Interesse an ihrer Behandlung ist geweckt. Eine tragische, dabei nicht heroische Reise beginnt. Darin werden medizinische Experimente, die Familiengeschichte der Deaths, das Privatleben des Dr. Busner, hohe Dosen L-Dopa, Unverständnis und Erkenntnis zu einem dichten Erzählstrang verflochten. Patientin und Arzt, beide verändern sich unwiderruflich, doch wer die anrührende Geschichte einer Freundschaft à la Oliver Sacks oder überhaupt eine Art Happy Ending erwartet, der muss enttäuscht werden.„[I]hre Einweisung war Beerdigung“Die Anstalt wird als Ort inszeniert, der eine Rückkehr in die Außenwelt nicht vorsieht, selbst Busner und Teile des Personals, die physisch in der Lage sind, die Gebäude zu verlassen, können die Anstalt nicht zurücklassen, nehmen sie in ihren Köpfen mit. Wer einmal in die Mühlen der Psychiatrie geraten ist, ist für die Welt verloren. Das Labyrinthische dieses Nicht-Orts, der alles Leben verschluckt, wird in den Köpfen der Insassen fortgeführt. Keiner weiß, was sich in ihren Gehirnwindungen verbirgt, wie viel Bewusstsein dort schlummert. Die medikamenten-induzierte Erweckung Audreys wirft dabei nicht nur Fragen über ihre Vergangenheit und Gegenwart und die unendliche Kluft dazwischen auf, sondern auch über die Kategorisierung von Normalität. Was heute als normal, gesund, zurechnungsfähig betrachtet wird, wurde gestern ganz anders gesehen und mag morgen schon überlebt sein. Erkenntnis stellt sich immer erst im Nachhinein ein, und dies einzusehen, mag zu den schmerzhaftesten Erfahrungen gehören.Die literarische (überhaupt mediale, nicht medizinische) Beschäftigung mit geistig und/oder körperlich Beeinträchtigten als Extremfall des sozialen Außenseiters kann die verschiedensten Formen annehmen. Will Self ist bereit, auch die albtraumhaften Untiefen in der Psychiatrie zu thematisieren und die Schattenseiten aufzuzeigen, die bis in die rezente Vergangenheit reichen: Das Grauen des Kontrollverlusts auf Seiten der Patienten, die Schrecken von Hilflosigkeit und Resignation auf Seiten der Ärzte und Pfleger. Schwarze Schafe, die diese ausweglose Situation ausnutzen, um ihre eigenen niederen Triebe, ihren Sadismus, ihre Hybris, ihre moralisch fragliche Neugierde auszuleben. Das ganze Gruselkabinett möglicher Missetäter wird evoziert. Gleichzeitig macht Self klar, dass selbst unter den besten Bedingungen in Hospitälern wie Friern ‚leben‘ nicht wirklich möglich ist. Unter diesen Umständen zu überleben und nicht im Morast der eigenen Gedanken zu ersticken, ist für Patienten wie Personal – so wird angedeutet – eine Sisyphusarbeit.Magnetische LesezeichenRegenschirm eröffnet sich seinen Lesern nicht ohne weiteres, nicht ohne Mühen; man muss daran knabbern, denn große Brocken abbeißen kann man nicht: Die Erzählung ist komplett als Gedankenstrom verfasst. Dabei kommt das ganze Buch ohne Kapitel aus, selbst Absätze sind rar gesät. Für Bücher wie diese wurden magnetische Lesezeichen erfunden. Will Selfs Prosa ist chaotisch und voller Wortneuschöpfungen, Ellipsen, abgebrochener Gedanken, Interjektionen. Hier scheint die Sprache einen Schluckauf zu haben. Die Perspektive des Denkenden, wessen Kopf man gerade bevölkert, wechselt ohne Vorwarnung, gern mitten im Satz. Auch die Chronologie hat keine Macht über das Geschehen. London vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, ‚Gegenwart‘, die 1970er, die Nachkriegszeit, eine andere Gegenwart – die Zeiten wechseln sich ab und verschmelzen. Erzählerische Inkonsistenz und Sackgassen werden in Kauf genommen, vieles wird angedeutet und offengelassen, wer im medizinischen Jargon nicht firm ist, muss einiges nachschlagen, ein komplettes Bild ergibt sich nie.Regenschirm ist ein polyphoner Roman über viele Themen. In seinem Zentrum steht die Frage nach geistiger (Un-)Gesundheit und dem Wandel in deren Beurteilung. Die anstrengende, verdrehte, verrückte Sprache dient dabei der Erzählung mehr als eine klare, strukturierte Ausdrucksweise es je gekonnt hätte. Wer bereit ist, hierein zu investieren, wird mit einer wunderschönen, furchtbaren Geschichte belohnt.Will Self: RegenschirmAus dem Englischen von Gregor HensHoffmann und Campe, 496 SeitenPreis: 24,99 EuroISBN: 978-3-455-40462-3
    • 4/5
      This is not an easy book to read. Paragraphs go on for page after page, so few are the breaks between them that on first sight it seems that there are no paragraphs at all. Streams of consiousnesses flow as the boundaries between the four main characters and three main time periods are endlessly blurred. A sentence will start out at the beginning of the twentieth century and transform seamlessly somewhere in the middle to the thoughts of character nearly a hundred years later. Snippets of songs, and random thoughts force their way into the narrative; a sizeable portion of the text is printed in italics for reasons that are not completely obvious. Looking at the first few pages I very nearly made the decision not to read the book at all, it seemed so obviously to be hard work. But when I started reading, I found that it wasn't the uphill struggle that it had seemed to be. While I certainly couldn't understand everything that was written, or all or even most of the references, by letting it just flow over me I found that I was very engaged with the book, interested in the characters and didn't for a moment think of putting it to one side. In particular I loved the lack of boundaries: the way a Victorian pocket watch transforms within a single sentence to become a digital wrist watch, and the reader suddenly realises that the narrative has changed character and moved forward seventy years.Audrey Death, (or De'Ath, or Deer as her name endlessly mutates) is a long-term patient in the Frien Barnet mental hospital of 1971 Britain. She is one of a number of patients who are believed to be suffering from encephalitis lethargica, a disease which spread throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War I, leaving a third of its sufferers dead and another third completely unable to interact with the world around them, while at the same time suffering from compulsive repetive tics performed at astonishing speed. Dr Zachary Busner, a psychiatrist at the hospital recognises a similarity between certain of their symptoms and those of Parkinson's disease, for which the drug L-DOPA has had positive results. Deciding to treat the sufferers with this drug in a somewhat unorthodox trial, he discovers that the drug has dramatic effects, and the somnambulant patients wake. Interwoven with this narrative is one of Britain during and immediately after the First World War: Audrey's life as an intelligent and politically active young woman working at the Arsenal munitions factory in London; her younger brother Stanley who is obsessed with the mechanical progress that the new century offers; and her older brother Albert whose astonishing calculating power propels him out of the reach of his working class family. The third and final narrative strand is that of the older Dr Busner, retired and looking back on his life and in particular the summer when he awoke the encephalitic patients.I found this to be a very rewarding read, and, apart from The Garden of Evening Mists, the most thought-provoking of my Booker short-list reads. I found the awakening of the patients particularly interesting as it is loosely based on a true story, detailed in Oliver Sacks' book Awakenings and also the subject of the film of the same name with Robin Williams and Robert de Niro (neither of which I had come across before reading this book). But I also enjoyed the characters that Will Self had created against this backdrop and I enjoyed the blurring of time and consciousness that he employs. So while this is not a book for everyone, and requires quite slow and careful reading, I'd encourage people to read at least the first forty of fifty pages before deciding it's not for them.

      1 person found this helpful