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The Secret Scripture

Sebastian Barry

Start date: August 1, 2019

Finish date: August 31, 2019

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Aug 29, 2019 Celia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction-read, reading-the-wrld, kindle-list, elyse, not-translate, 2019-read, bookey, ten-year-challenge, wholesale

Roseanne Clear McNulty is the main character in this book. She is institutionalized in Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. She is 100 years old and she has been there for 60 years.

Dr William Grene is Senior Psychiatrist at Roscommon. The Hospital is being re-built on a smaller scale. Grene is evaluating each patient to see if they need to continue to stay at the new Roscommon. He strongly suspects that Roseanne was incarcerated for 'social reasons' rather than medical necessity.

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Sep 09, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2019, european, read-the-world, read-the-world-2018-2020

Imagine spending 60 years in an institution! My other main hobby is genealogy and I have found that it was quite common, not that long ago, to lock people in institutions because science had no answers. People who were BiPolar, or who had Epilepsy. People who were Autistic. Everything that wasn't "normal" and for which science had no knowledge was seen as mental illness and that meant the assylum.

In The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry tells the story of Rose McNultry, a woman whois almost 100 Imagine spending 60 years in an institution! My other main hobby is genealogy and I have found that it was quite common, not that long ago, to lock people in institutions because science had no answers. People who were BiPolar, or who had Epilepsy. People who were Autistic. Everything that wasn't "normal" and for which science had no knowledge was seen as mental illness and that meant the assylum.

In The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry tells the story of Rose McNultry, a woman whois almost 100 years old who has spent more than half of life as a patient (inmate) in Roscommon Mental hospital in rural west Ireland. The hospital is shutting its doors and a doctor must evaluate her fitness for being released. I can only imagine the fear she must have suffered! And this doctor who barely knew her before now has the job of deciding what to do with a frail, very old woman, with no connections outside the hospital. She was institutionalized against her will and only now, 60 years later, has the opportunity to leave. But is it too late?

During her time in the hospital Rose has been keeping a journal of her life which she keeps hidden under the floorboards of her room. It is through her journal entries that we learn about her past. We find that the relationship with her mother was distant and remote. And that Rose had fallen in love with a man but that she was treated poorly by his mother because she was Presbyterian and he was Catholic. And then there was his priest who made sure the marriage didn't happen. He was cruel and misogynistic. His word was all it took to ostracize her and to deem her as trouble to society. His word was enough to make sure she was locked up. This part of the book is shocking and sad but is based on history. It is very real.

The book jumps back and forth in time. Rose's story now and Rose's story then. It was powerful and nuanced. It made the sadness more real.

But here is the most beautiful part of the book... Rose isn't angry or resentful. She isn't bitter. Rose is a survivor who chose forgiveness. This book is heartwarming in spite of its content. And that makes Barry an extremely talented writer.

*****
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Feb 22, 2023 Clare Boucher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Beautifully written and the two narrative voices are handled well. I would have given the first three-quarters five starts for the quality of the writing, the exploration of the fallibility of memory, and the depiction of the early years of the Irish Republic. The last quarter disappointed me, but to say why would involve spoilers.

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