Book Review: The Hospital by Barbara O'Hare
by Barbara O'Hare
Published by Blink Publishing
It’s hard to say what the appropriate reaction should be to a memoir about a girl who was a part of illegal experimentation at a mental institution, but when I finished the book, I hugged it. The Hospital, by Barbara O’Hare is about her troubled childhood starting from when her mother left her at 11 months old to her current stages in battling the court system against Aston Hall in Derbyshire.
The writing is simplistic, but carries the reader along, simply outlining what O’Hare knew to be her reality. In a previous review, I made the complaint that the author didn’t chose to go into the psychological processing of a character. However, in this case, I am terrified to know the psychological experience of O’Hare simply because I know this truly happened to her, along with over fifty other children (that have so far come forward).
But it’s the voice in it that puts you in her placement. When she found relief, I found relief; when she was angry, I was; when she was scared, I was too. While the author wrote this book for therapeutic purposes, I found myself questioning why I was reading it, why did I want to know the horrors she, and so many others, went through?
I carried the 12-year-old Barbara with me throughout my day when I wasn’t reading. I saw children with ice cream, with new toys, and I thought about how that childhood wasn’t hers. That was when I knew how hooked and how well-written this book is. By reading her story, the memory of those children are given life again, and there is the ability for them to have their voices heard.
This is a dark story, and one, that if there is any humanity in the reader, will make one squirm. But if you can get through the darkness, it is worth the read. The world looks differently afterward. I picked up the book because I have an interest in mental institutions, those still existing in the States, and those that have been abandoned in Britain. My fascination for them still lingers, though with an added layer of complexity.
I turn over the question repeatedly of why I would recommend this book. Is it to share out of morbid curiosity? Is it to make people depressed? Is it to point out trivialities of daily problems? At the end of the day, I can only recommend this book to point out the strength of the human Will, and to expand much needed empathy in the world. And with that, all I can say is Read This Book.
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