The Storm at the Door by Stefan Merrill Block
| The Storm at the Door by Stefan Merrill Block | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Louise Laurie
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| Summary: Based on a true story, this book is about three generations of the one family - the Merrills. Grandfather Frederick finds himself in a secure mental institution in 1960s America - he's not quite sure what happened but as he's as sane as the next person he'll be discharged soon - won't he? | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 368 | Date: July 2011 |
| Publisher: Faber and Faber | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0571269594 | |
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The author, Stefan Merrill Block, is writing about members of his own family in The Storm at the Door. The story opens at the end, if you get my drift. We see the elderly grandmother Katherine in a bit of a spot, wondering whether to open and then read a bunch of papers. These papers (these red-hot papers) are the words and thoughts of her husband Frederick from his time in a mental institution. If she opens them, then it will be opening a veritable can of worms. Does she or doesn't she?
We then turn back in time to when the young Frederick (he's never Fred or Freddie) has been newly admitted to this mental hospital/institution. Block takes time to give his readers a slow and steady build-up to that fateful day. A day that could have turned out so differently. And Frederick treats his first few days almost as a bit of a laugh, a bit of a lark. He most certainly does not belong here in amongst all these mad, sad people. It's all been some sort of mistake. Katherine will demand that her husband be released immediately, won't she?
Then fate takes another quirky turn and the days turn into weeks. And the weeks turn into months ... Frederick is still locked up. It's enough to turn anyone mad, don't you think? Frederick is furious and is starting to worry about his future. And back in the 1960s there were far too many individuals who were thought insane, were locked up for their own 'good' and perhaps were simply displaying unusual or unacceptable social behaviour. It all makes for thought-provoking reading indeed.
Frederick decides that the sensible option is to keep busy till the authorities let him home to his wife and family. He starts to write to his wife on a fairly regular basis. These infamous letters (we're told how they were preserved and then came to light) form the backbone of the novel. In Block's elegant prose, we learn of the young Frederick: of how there appeared to be some sort of mental weakness, and that he'd started drinking heavily at a young age. Those drinking sessions often ended as depression episodes. We also get up close and personal to his long-suffering wife. She's a sorry victim in all this. She tries to maintain a normal domestic situation for her children but it's often difficult. Then financial problems start to loom. Her family are able to help out to a certain extent. But they are fast losing patience. They say to Katherine to ditch that loser of a husband and get on with her life without him. He's nothing but trouble, after all.
Interspersed with Katherine's story, we get to learn of the daily life of Frederick within the institution: of the heavy medication, of the rules and regulations - and much more. Throughout all of the many and varied ups and downs, these letters are a constant. The reader is presented with the odd sample letter and the prose is lucid and elegant. This novel serves to illustrate how one seemingly simple decision way back in time, affects several generations of the same family. I think that unless you are in a similar situation, you cannot possibly know the range of emotions. A moving and rather sad tale. Recommended.
Thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.
If you enjoyed The Storm at the Door, you'll like A Secret Madness by Elaine Bass.
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