Rita Egan's Reviews > Shy Creatures

Shy Creatures
By Clare Chambers

When Clare Chambers read a newspaper article about a bedraggled man unknown to neighbours, who was found, following a fracas involving clothes flung out a window, living in squalor with his elderly aunt, she was moved to imagine what had happened in his life that he spent 25 years as a recluse only to emerge childlike, almost naked, with 5 ft long hair, a 2ft long beard and mute.

As a child I clearly remember a similar situation occurring in Finglas, not far from where I grew up, and I was immediately drawn to the premise, albeit with trepidation, because the woman involved in my neighbourhood has remained in my heart for 50 years and I have a protective feeling about how a story like this should be told. (Side eye at Sally Diamond)

This is my first Clare Chambers and I'm relieved to say that this story is in good hands.

There is an old fashioned quality to the storytelling, and I mean that in a positive way. There are 2 timelines, one set in 1960's beginning with the grim discovery and the medical and psychiatric treatment employed, and the 2nd is a reverse timeline from earlier in the 60's back to the 1930's, which resolves the layered reasons that William and his aunts ended up the way they did.

The main protagonist is Helen, an art therapist, who is involved in an illicit relationship with Clive, a colleague, one of the psychiatrists at Westbury Park, where William is admitted for treatment and recovery. They, like most of the characters are deeply flawed, but utterly relatable.

Chambers chose the 60's setting because she considered it an interesting time in the history of psychiatry, and her deep research of both that field and of the social and cultural period really pays off, giving this book such an air of authenticity that I almost believed it had been written in that time, by someone with the sensibilities of the time.

Despite the tragic circumstances of William and his squandered youth, the book is imbued with much humour and some shenanigans that would have been too scandalous to laugh about in the sixties.

A highly entertaining story that turns a lens on the many versions of mental illness, and the thin veil that separates the patient from the healer.

Publication date: 29th August 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #OrionPublishing for access to the eGalley