The More You Ignore Me

April 26, 2010
Brand’s (It’s Different for Girls) latest lacks focus as she alternates between the voices of a devoted husband, Keith, his schizophrenic wife, Gina, and their daughter, Alice. The story, set in a small English town, is best served when Alice dispels her concerns about the psychiatric illness that has left her mother, Gina, in a medicated fog throughout most of Alice’s young life. Alice’s voice is the most poignant and fleshed out, and she lends a certain charm to the tale, as does the clever twist of Alice’s obsession with musician Morrissey, who first hit the music charts with his band the Smiths in the early ’80s when Alice was a young teen. Her somber existence is mimicked in his music, which gives a solid sense of the period and Alice’s thoughts. Alice’s path provides an interesting insight into how a child deals with a parent’s mental illness, but the book as a whole misses the mark, pulling in too many directions. And the introduction of Gina’s family, an uneducated country bumpkin clan, only adds to the confusion.

April 15, 2010
Drawing on her experience as a psychiatric nurse and stand-up comic, BBC writer Brands hilarious and heartfelt novel tells the story of teenage Alice in a small town in northern England. Alice is teased at school as the madwomans daughter after her mother is taken to the psychiatric ward after she stands naked on her roof and announces her crush on the local TV weatherman. The farcical treatment of mental illness as weird entertainment might get a bit much, except that everyone is a bit crazy, even Alices classmates, who are refugees from what seem like happy, traditional nuclear families. Her boyfriend, Mark, runs from his abusive dad, who beats Mark for protesting the presence of hunters in the woods. And Alice has a wild crush on a pop star: Is she turning into Mom? Mom is no trouble when she is heavily sedated, but Alice wants to free the zombie. The farce always blends with sorrow, and the sense of cartoon families everywhere makes for touching sitcom drama.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)