It is an exciting time for me and The Device, The Devil & Me as it is currently being prepared for re-release in e-book format - hooray! I am also working on a book trailer to accompany it.
I am just going to let you read the whole review - so chuffed I am by it - thank you Carol. The Eildon Tree is a fab magazine with a beautiful cover, I wanted to share it with you but you'll just have to download it x x
THE DEVICE, THE DEVIL & ME
Linen Press Edinburgh
Prose
2009.
PBK
220 pages
£10
IBSN 978-0-95596-184-7
This is a spellbinding book. A
brilliant book, written with superbly
accomplished skill and expressiveness,
it is completely believable and
authentic.
It has heart, love and clarity, laced in
and through, interlocked with dark
apposite humour flashing out at just
the right times like a harmonious
symphony. There is not a wrong or
discordant note throughout. Comic
writing, which is passionate, truthful
and spot on accurate.
The close focus on detailed observation
of human emotion and behaviour is
stunning in its insight as is the use of
metaphor in description.
The form and structure of the book
is dramatic, with the progressive
revelation of the past traumatic
formative events in the protagonist’s
childhood as the novel progresses
in its gripping narrative.
The emotions generated as a loved
one dies are conveyed with the utmost
insight and sensitivity. Rendering the
experience of bereavement, from her
descriptions of Pete the Goldfish, a
London Shubunkin, to a family, the
author carries the reader on a roller
coaster ride in which we are completely
and powerfully engaged.
The emotional charge of an expectant
mother and the intense heightening
of emotion in the events surrounding
the birth of a child are graphically
portrayed.
So also made vivid is the mental
turmoil suffered by the novel’s narrator
from late childhood through to mid
twenties which takes the form of
extreme mood changes like a bipolar
disorder. These rapid, frequently
instantaneous, swings of mood cause
the abrupt onset of rages and outbursts
of anger relieved by episodes of self
harm, a bulimia like condition and
a recurrent nightmare which itself
develops its own horrific narrative.
Inevitably this all leads to very low self
esteem.
The personalisation of all these
horrors as “The Devil” of the title
is used as an extremely clever and
effective “Device” and image,
enacting the role of an ever-present
antagonist throughout the novel, a
“Doppelganger”.
Recovery comes to the protagonist in
stages; firstly, by self honesty, being
brave enough to admit to herself and,
after various false starts, another
human being, the nature of what she
has so far been concealing; starting
psychological therapy, and finally
ending with healing from a most
unlikely source.
This is an uplifting book and is for
everyone, but especially for those with
grave emotional difficulties, those
addicted to alcohol and substances, and
those with bitterness in their souls.
All Psychiatrists, Psychologists, General
Practitioners, Bereavement Councillors,
Alternative Therapists, and indeed
all professional Health and Mental
Healthcare workers and Medical &
Nursing Students also should read it.
By Carol Norris.
