#4: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

I have to start out by saying that I am biased against this book. I have suffered from the mental illness of depression for many years and this book simply hit too close to home for me to really, truly enjoy it. That being said, it was well written and very insightful.

This is a story about a girl who enters a mental hospital at age 16. She is schizophrenic and has invented a fantasy world for herself called "Yr." Her name is Deborah. Deborah is a Jewish girl dealing with adolescence around the time of World War Two. She has to contend with some anti-Semitic incidents and has a serious illness that she was treated for as a child, but for most intents and purposes Deborah is a normal teenage girl with the same type of issues that most teenage girls have.

I like that this book never blames a really wretched past or anything like that for the condition of the main character. It addresses that mental illness can happen to just about anyone. The book chronicles her adventures in the make believe world that she lives in, her experiences going through therapy, and her eventual tentative journey out into the world. It is very raw. It touches on her highs and her lows and gives appropriate credit to her doctor for her role in helping.

It is an excellent portrayal of mental illness. The only problem for me was that it was too dark and too gritty. I am not at a good place in my life for dark and gritty so the book was hard for me to get through. I could only read a couple of chapters at a time and as a result. I definitely think that it is a book worth reading, but I also think that the proper frame of mind and an interest in mental illness would be important in order to enjoy the material.