Ratings1
Average rating4.5
“An incredibly moving and gripping novel . . . so sure-footed, clear, vibrating, like chiffon or a cigarette.” — Olga Ravn An incandescent debut about young adults learning how to care for themselves — from within the limits of the psychiatric system Perfect for fans of Tove Ditlevsen and devotees of Sylvia Plath In honest, crackling investigations of the psychiatric system and the young people trying to find their way, Gråbøl’s soaring debut offers a critique of institutionalization and an urgent recalibrating of the language and conceptions of care. “I’m not inarticulate, but I leave language to the room around me,” says Fine Gråbøl’s nameless narrator as she dreams of furniture flickering to life in the room she occupies at a temporary psychiatric care unit for young adults. A chair that greets you, or shiny tiles of floor that follow a peculiar grammar of their own. Our narrator is obsessed with the way items rise up out of their thingness, assuming personalities and private motives. She also cannot sleep, and practices her daily routines with the urgency of survival – peeling a carrot, drinking prune juice – all an acutely calibrated exploration into having a home. Structured as a series of intimate vignettes like those of Olga Ravn, What Kingdom thrums with the swirling voices of this shared home. Hector blares Michael Jackson from the recreation room and recalls a past in Peru when his psychoses were treated with exorcism. The town would shake the devil out of his small, teenage body before he was relocated to Denmark. Or Marie, who has lived in the temporary unit since she was eighteen, has no idea that her mother lives just four floors below in a permanent care unit. Echoing the aching writings of Janet Frame on electroconvulsive therapy, or Linda Boström Knausgård’s mythical meditations on silence and mental health, Fine Gråbøl renders a delicate and deep uncoupling from the world.
Reviews with the most likes.
I quite liked this book alot honestly. The length of the chapters were a little bit on the shorter side but for this situation that was perfectly alright. The writing style was easy to follow with not many complicated words.
In this case that might also have a tiny small downside as the subject is kinda heavy. It is about a boy that is talking and living his life at a phych ward and his experience with mental illness. When the writing gets to easy the severity of the subjcet tends to often get a little lost along the way. i personally did not feel that it was a huge problem with this book but some people might expereince that the severity is not properly showed.
The book did manged to keep almost some kinda of lught spirit about itself. They talk about how they plan their future, their experince with diffrent medication but tyen afterwards tear them all up as looking at plans stresses the main caracther out. It is serious and we can see and understand that this is problem the mc is struggeling with while it still being kept light enough that we can follow along.
I did overall relly enjoy this book and recemedn it to other people that want an easier read while still being about an heavier subject