Love in the Asylum

by Lisa Carey

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Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)

Lisa's provocative (in a good way) story-telling made this book an interesting & easy read. The characters' thoughts, gestures, and interactions are believable, and I quickly got comfortable with each one. Of course, living in Maine myself, I kept trying to imagine the various places described throughout the story (what bookstore was used as inspiration?), which distracted my reading, but was entertaining nonetheless! Great read. (

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kristi_test_02 | Dec 6, 2016 |

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kristilabrie | Oct 30, 2016 |

a moving relationship between a mentally ill children's book writer and a drug addict. fascinating story-within-the-story

mochap | Mar 1, 2010 |

lba's crazy. Oscar's a druggie.Nevertheless, in spite of all their problems, perhaps because of alltheir problems, Alba and Oscar meet at the mental hospital and fallin love.I like books about mental illness. I like books about redemption andhealing. And I like books with a little romance in there somewhere.This book has all of these. (

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debnance | Jan 29, 2010 |

Alba is crazy. She's been institutionalized off and on since she was fifteen. Oscar is an addict. He doesn't believe he's hit rock bottom or think that his using of drugs is a problem. These two people meet when both are committed to Abenaki Hospital in rural Maine. From their first meeting, a spark of something that could take them both beyond their troubles appears. Is it possible to find love in the asylum?

This book was not quite what I expected as I got further into it. Alba and Oscar are both very real and interesting characters, but I found the story's strength in the intertwining narrative of Mary X. At first, I was put off by what I saw as an intrusion in the story of Alba and Oscar but soon, I changed my tune. The Mary X story was incredibly unique and interesting and, I think, ended up a stronger story than that of Alba and Oscar. I was happy that Alba stumbled upon Mary X's story and used it to propel her own story further. Well done, but lacks some polish. Will probably read other Lisa Carey in the future. (

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booksandbosox | Aug 2, 2009 |

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Love in the Asylum

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Massachusetts Book Awards, Honor Book (Fiction, 2005)

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Brehl, Jennifer

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0060937432, Paperback)

From an author whose work has been called 'haunted and joyous and heartbreaking all at once' (Washington Post Book World) comes an unforgettable novel of two lost souls who find love and salvation against all odds.

Can love save those who believe they are beyond redemption? In and out of a swank north–eastern rehab centre more than a dozen times in ten years, Alba Elliot, a 25–year–old children's book writer and manic–depressive, believes she is a hopeless case. But an unlikely relationship with Oscar, a 30–year–old drug addict whose 'recreation' has cost him everything, and a century–old story hidden in the institution's library bring about changes that Alba could never have imagined.

Brought together by fate, influenced by forces as beautiful and powerful as they are unforeseen, Alba and Oscar will slowly rise from the ashes of despair and self–destruction and, in the midst of righting an old wrong, begin to heal their battered spirits. A beautifully crafted, heartfelt tale of tragedy and triumph, Lisa Carey's moving third novel is a testament to the surprising resilience of the human heart.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:18:42 -0400)

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"Alba Elliot is tired of being crazy. In and out of Abenaki Mental Hospital more than a dozen times in ten years, fed up with diagnoses that come without cures and a life organized by a days-of-the-week pill case, the twenty-five-year-old children's book writer is waiting for a miracle. Oscar Jameson, a thirty-year-old drug addict enrolled in the rehab program by his frustrated brother, is not looking for anything so profound. Oscar doesn't believe he has a problem and resents the counselors, the other addicts, and his brother, all of whom insist he belongs there. The only activities Oscar looks forward to are the spirited, sarcastic conversations that have begun with Alba on the hospital lawn. Then one day, in the back pages of a hospital library book, Alba finds a letter written seventy years earlier but never sent. Mary Doherty, who was committed by her husband and taken from her children, left behind secret missives about the atrocities done to her and her belief in an ancient healing power. As Alba pieces together Mary's heartbreaking chronicle, she begins to set her hopes on a different kind of medicine." --BOOK JACKET.… (more)

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