Angela’s Comments (group member since Feb 21, 2013)

Angela’s comments from the Brains and Books group.

I think this story and the choices this mother made, made a lot of people uncomfortable, but in particular those with any experience of eating disorders, and so I was really glad and to read your standpoint, because it is compassionate. Sure we don’t like some of the choices and actions but you have been able to put yourself in this mother’s shoes. I can’t imagine what it must be like, but I do know that it is really difficult for parents who are desperate to do the right thing by their children being so heavily criticised.
I know i’ve said it before but i’ll say it again; regardless of ‘health at every size’, and what a great philosophy it is, the state of obesity is clinically distinct from overweight, and while overweight is able to be healthy, just as underweight is, obesity IS a different category because of the very fact that it usually puts you at much greater risk of disease. That is not discrimination imo, just a fact we can’t ignore or kid ourselves about – that if our child is obese, it doesn’t matter, because of ‘health at every size’ right? Sorry that is a bit off the topic here, but it is just me on one of my soapboxes...
I too worry about how obsessive the mother is over Bea’s food, and calories, and weigh-ins. To me that is absolutely shocking, and it seems that some of this has become in ingrained in Bea herself as well, which i find incredibly sad. Kids shouldn’t have to know anything about weight, calories or classifying foods.
I am not sure if Bea was actually classified as being obese or just overweight, but regardless, i don’t agree with these obsessive practices her mother employed to make her lose weight either. Even if she had been obese, there are slower, steadier and less mentally and emotionally damaging methods of making this work that wouldn’t leave Bea with the same negative associations with food as her mother, and a possible eating disorder of her own later.
Your review has been really great to read Fi because I am thinking how skewed the media’s view can be and how if, if all i had seen and heard about this case was what they presented, (ie the ‘terrible’ mother stories etc) how much i could be missing. I too agree, that this mother and daughter were probably a little bit between a rock and a hard place, and Dara tried to do whatever she felt she had to do to keep Bea safe. I think from reading this, it sounds like she just used overly strict and obsessive methods, and that she could have achieved the same outcome of Bea becoming a healthier weight with healthier strategies...but yeah, i think her heart was in the right place. Trying to protect Bea from the problems of being overweight, and maybe she saw those problems as being worse than having a normal-sized daughter who was very controlled and careful about what she ate. I don’t know for sure. I guess we just have to hope that the experience doesn’t damage Bea irreversibly.

I'm about a third of the way into this book. So far, it is moving a little more slowly than what i'd like (or at least what i'm used to!) however i think that's almost part of the idea...It is based on a Russian fairy-tale, and it's as if getting it down too quickly would take something away from the character of it? if that makes sense...Perhaps it wouldn't be as spellbinding, hypnotic or atmospheric as it is, if it was told (or read) too quickly. It is one of those books that goes really well with a rainy day and some time to let your imagination roam a little...Normally i might think of this kind of thing as a bit of a slow push, but it IS actually a very beautiful story, and so I am trying to persist.

Yes, they were so much fun! My favourite bits were their club meetings when they'd all be sitting around in Claudia's room braiding Mary-anne's or Claudia's hair, with Kristy manning the appointment book, and they'd be eating Claudia's junk food like Oreos and Twinkies (I was always fascinated by exactly what those are!). And in every book you'd read about each of them, ie Dawn the Californian with long golden hair, Mary-Anne small dark-haired and pretty and shy, Kristy, sporty, brown-hair ponytail, sneakers-and-jeans kind of no-nonsense girl...Oh i got to know them.LOL

Oh yes, lobotomies! Wow, i had no idea about the insulin therapy treatment! Utterly barbaric! And unethical!

Thank you so much Fi for your introduction :). It is great!
I hope that being part of this group is going to help in a little way at least towards getting your reading skills up to speed again, and help with enthusiasm too :). I think your story is amazing. xoxo
I have loved to read since i was about 6. Before that, i was struggling to read at school, and my teacher at that time picked up on it (lucky it was picked up early). She advised my Mum a simple task; read with Ange EVERY night at home. So that's what we did and once i discovered what books could offer, i never looked back, and have barely ever been without a book since. I will never forget reading my first chapter book...it was just a little one, a Babysitter's Club one actually...but because it had 'small writing' and 'chapters' in it and was over 30 pages, it was a 'real' book.

Yeah me too, the shininess gets a little bit too glary...:)

I thought i did say what i thought of it...That i did really enjoy it. There were parts that were a bit lengthy and drawn out but I think what was most interesting was how mental illness was perceived back then in the beginning, when doctors were in the really early stages of understanding the mind and the brain...For example, they used to actually measure brains with rulers and tape measures, because they thought it was a clue as to someone's mental capacity. And even back then they were starting to look at the effects of the subconscious, and exploring the effects of hypnosis. They are still trying to work out what was going on with mental illness....

Really enjoyed this book, a fictional story based around fact and the early stages of attempts to understand mental illness and psychosis; the beginnings of psychiatry and psychology. It offers a fascinating, insightful, as well as beautifully-articulated understanding of the origins of such 'illnesses', drawing together various schools of thought and much of the scientific theory we have come to understand as providing the most sensible (and sensical) explanation for our amazing human abilities; natural selection, evolution, heredity, and these linked to the physical structures and assymetry of function of the brain as we know it and the (then) unknown 'physical units of inheritance' - the chromosomes, genes and allelles themselves. This is intertwined with the life story of two men, their personal and professional struggles and their drive to uncover the mystery of mental illness, suffused with drama, love and the reality of life and death. What does everyone else think??

I didn't really get too enthusiastic about this book, even though the story did sound intriguing. I struggled through it, but I didn't like something about the author's writing. She and her husband are foster carers, which is very admirable, and we need good ones like them badly, but there was something a little TOO wholesome about this family...and how they took on this little foster child who was an absolute tearaway, very, very difficult to manage or understand. Eventually it all ends up warm and happy at the end as they learn to manage him and also find out more about what has caused him to behave the way he does...But there was a little bit too much of a feeling like the author was blowing her own trumpet a bit too loudly...nevertheless, that's just my opinion, and I'd love to hear what other people thought of it.