BR - The comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer

This book was lent to me by a friend and to be honest I was immediately attracted by the title. I have read a few books on the subject of madness and have found them interesting, thought provoking, sad or sometimes just not very good.

I sat outside in my summer house yesterday and read this book in one sitting. It is only 130ish pages long but it is still a long time since I have read a book in one sitting. I so enjoyed having the time and concentration to do this and was glad that the book held me to enable me to keep going. I felt very relaxed and chilled afterwards.

The book itself is very dark. The main character Peter is caught inside himself and is unable to escape. Many of his carers feel he is putting on, that he is able to break free but it soon becomes clear that he can't, that maybe he doesn't want to. The descriptions of him, both physically and mentally seemed very clear. I understood who he was and maybe even why he was. As he becomes more and more rigid and bent in his body somehow is mind becomes clearer (or so it appears to the reader who can see inside his head).

The ending is not upbeat - yet somehow it is not sad - somehow it feels inevitable and possibly kind. It is not a fun book, it has aspects that should make the reader explore their ideas of humanity, of madness, of what makes us.

The process of reading it for me was wonderful - a quiet, almost stolen couple of hours that reset my inner clock to a better calmness.

I think I would recommend this book to you - but in the proviso that you read it quickly (in one or two sittings only) because I think this is the only way you can get inside Peter's skin and understand his mind, understand his madness.