Number 73 - Playthings - Alex Pheby

 

As regular readers will spot, this is my third Alex Pheby novel in the past 12 months. 

This is his second novel, written in 2015 so I'm a few years late. 

It's his first with Galley Beggar Press.  I do like these very plain but distinctive covers. These editions are also printed on a very nice grade of paper which adds a whole tactile experience to the books.  This one i found second hand and has clearly been read a couple of times before.  The binding seems remarkably durable for a paperback edition.  It's probably not an issue for most people but I do think it's a good sign when the publishers put as much work as GBP into making the physical item itself as good quality as they do.

As for the content, GBP are normally reliable in finding good, interesting novels.  This one is no exception.  It follows Judge Paul Schreber when he suffers a mental health incident in the street and is institutionalised against his will. This is based on a true life story.  Schreber is a famous name in the world of psychoanalysis and several studies have been made of him.

This is a fictionalised account of his third out of mental illness and incarceration. It's beautifully written, as Pheby's other two book have been. It gives what feels like a disturbingly accurate depiction of a mental collapse. 

In the blurb on the inside of the front cover, it says that it "unearths the roots of the great ills in the twentieth century, the psychological structure of fascism, the cancer of anti-semitism, and the abuse of institutional power". I definitely got the abuse of power, that's a clear and present theme in the book. I'm not sure I got the other themes quite as powerfully.  It's certainly a very strong narrative on institutions abusing the power they have on the inmates, also on the impact of an abusive childhood, but I'm not sure that a delusional man with an imaginary companion in the shape of a Jewish man he briefly knew as a child- who fills him in on the reality of his situation on a regular basis whether he wants to hear it or not (mostly not)- counts as comment on antisemitism in the 20th century and beyond. The Fascism theme might be clearer when the book has had a chance to settle in my head.

The ending of the book is something of an emotional hammer blow.  This book is going to stay with me for a while.

It's available from Galley beggar press through their website, or though the usual suspects online.  If you want beautifully written historic fiction which tackles deeper themes, This is a good place to look.