Writer's Blog: Asylum

Asylum is a strange book. I haven't actually seen the film but as I'm lacking a picture it seemed like a good illustration for this post.

Naturally Asylum tells the story of an Asylum. It's main character is Stella Raphael who is the wife of one of the psychiatries and becomes involved with one of the patients. As you can probably tell from the trailer it isn't the happiest of stories. However I did find the novel a good read. I can't really say, given the subject matter, that it was enjoyable but Patrick McGrath has written a good story. The question is why?

What I mean by that is a little difficult to explain. J.K Rowling for instance was compelled to write Harry Potter. The story I heard was that she wrote the first paragraph on a napkin on a train.Now I'm not saying that every writer has this feeling of needing to write. I myself find it to be an uphill struggle - yet I still want to write. The point about Patrick McGrath I'm trying to make is that I can't see him compelled to write this story or struggling through the up hill battle of writing this novel.

Of course everybody is different, There are no doubt an infinity of reasons why someone chooses to put hours and hours in to creating a new world from their fingertips. I would certainly recommend Asylum. It is always good to fine new books to read so let me know if you have any recommendations.

I have now (from the 28th July) started reading Sabriel by Garth Nix. I'll probably be reviewing this is a little over a week.