I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Author: Green, Hannah

Title: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Binding: Paperback

Number Of Pages: 256

Release Date: 1985-02-08

Details: Product Description
Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the "normal" life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.
Review
“Convincing and emotionally gripping.” ―The New York Times
“A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind.” ―Chicago Tribune
From the Back Cover
Joanne Greenberg's semi-autobiographical novel stands as a timeless and unforgettable portrayal of mental illness.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the "normal" life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.
"A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind."―Chicago Tribune
About the Author
Joanne Greenberg is an internationally renowned, award-winning author of 13 novels and four collections of short stories. She lives with her husband in Colorado. They have two sons.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
They rode through the lush farm country in the middle of autumn, through quaint old towns whose streets showed the brilliant colors of turning trees. They said little. Of the three, the father was most visibly strained. Now and then he would place bits of talk into the long silences, random and inopportune things with which he himself seemed to have no patience. Once he demanded of the girl, whose face he had caught in the rearview mirror: “You know, don’t you, that I was a fool when I married—a damn young fool who didn’t know about bringing up children—about being a father?” His defense was half attack, but the girl responded to neither. The mother suggested that they stop for coffee. This was really like a pleasure trip, she said, in the fall of the year with their lovely young daughter and such beautiful country to see.
They found a roadside diner and turned in. The girl got out quickly and walked toward the restrooms behind the building. As she walked the heads of the two parents turned quickly to look after her. Then the father said, “It’s all right.”
“Should we wait here or go in?” the mother asked aloud, but to herself. She was the more analytical of the two, planning effects in advance—how to act and what to say—and her husband let himself be guided by her because it was easy and she was usually right. Now, feeling confused and lonely, he let her talk on—planning and figuring—because it was her way of taking comfort. It was easier for him to be silent.
“If we stay in the car,” she was saying, “we can be with her if she needs us. Maybe if she comes out and doesn’t see us... But then it should look as if we trust her. She must feel that we trust her....”
They decided to go into the diner, being very careful and obviously usual about their movements. When they had seated themselves in a booth by the windows, they could s

EAN: 9780330285490

Languages: en