It's 1972. Women are breaking out, families are breaking down, and men are trying to hold on for the ride. Dr. Joanna Bereza is a psychiatric intern who wants to have it all: a career, a loving marriage, and a family, but her passion to do what's right sets her against a system that's as stuck as the people it treats. On ward 2B, Joanna becomes obsessed with the treatment of two women: a mute young mother suspected of trying to kill her baby and a feisty old woman who's been through the mill one too many times. Blinded by her obsession, Joanna not only neglects her own husband, but in trying to stop her patients from getting shock treatment, she also puts her career in jeopardy. Further complicating matters is the seductive senior resident who looks more like a hip rock star than an aspiring shrink. Shadowing Joanna's work is her own unresolved grief over something that happened when she was a child. The Rubber Fence was inspired by the author's experience as a family therapist on a psychiatric ward.
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This novel was originally a screenplay called Shrinkproof. It got the attention of Jody Foster's agent in Hollywood but the actress eventually passed on it. In my book, there's a young mother who becomes mute after giving birth to her baby and ends up on the psychiatric ward. At the time, Jody was becoming a new mother herself. I can only guess at the reasons she passed on the script. It was also sent to Meg Ryan at the time and it was also a no go.
Making a film is a difficult business. I was an actress for a while and I know that any producer who embarks on a film has to love it so much that they're willing to invest big bucks and stay with the project for up to three years with pre-production and post-production work. When my agent lost interest, I decided to convert the story into a novel because it was a story I couldn't let go of.
The Rubber Fence was inspired by my first job as a clinical social worker on a psychiatric ward in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I'd been trained as a family therapist by my professor who'd worked for ten years as a family therapist in the Wisconisn Mental Health Centre. So when I arrived on the ward in the early 1970s and discovered that shock treatment still existed and was often the treatment of choice for serious depression, I was stunned. I was of the opinion that people needed a chance to tell their stories, that there were more than biological reasons for their depression. Anyway, some of those emotions and experiences made their way into my novel.
