Springs eternal

Imagine being put into a mental institution by so-called friendly neighbours, when you are not insane! No one is listening to your calls for help or answering your many questions. All that surrounds you is space, and all you have to comfort yourself are your memories.

Rodney Hall’s latest novel Love without Hope is about an elderly lady, Mrs Shoddy, who after loosing her property and beloved horses to a bushfire, is thrown into the NSW Department of Lunacy and declared insane.

If not insane at that time, having to be controlled by “The Master” in the Lunacy and a sadistic orderly called Vernon – would send anyone insane!

This is a very powerful and strangely enjoyable book. It is a somewhat mesmerising read and eloquently written – it helps that the author is one of Australia’s finest storytellers and a twice-winner of the Miles Franklin Award.

Still it is a disturbing read, with a long list of dark characters, who are responsible for admitting this poor woman. Mrs Shoddy was once a strong countrywoman, happy looking after her horses and living her life on the land. When her world collapses around her causing such lose and devastation, she understandably gets extremely depressed.

Whilst admitted, Mrs Shoddy conjures up memories of her long-lost husband, because she has nothing but her thoughts to entertain her. The spirit of her horses and her love of them also help to sustain her against the institutional brutality she has to endure. Ultimately it is her memories that help her through the ominous times.

Love without Hope is truly about that magical emotion that can conquer so many fears - hope. The character of Mrs Shoddy certainly relies heavily on her own feelings of hope to escape from the walls that surround her.

Hall’s latest book is an intricate novel, weaving between past and present tense. Characters are life-like and three-dimensional. The setting is well thought out and the country town is wonderfully captured and brought to the page effortlessly.

What makes this book unique is the fact that the storyline is very original and ambitious. While it is not a feel-good read, it is a thought provoking and emotional read. Try it if you want to immerse yourself in some beautiful writing and read something a little away from the “norm”.

Michele Perry

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Love without Hope

Author: Rodney Hall
Publisher: Picador
Price: $ 24.95

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