Customer Reviews
A novel about control - By: Alice Cadis, 02 Jun 2008 
MacGrath reveals the vulnerability of those who are subject to compulsive behaviour & the hubris of the psychiatrists that claim to be able to control, if not understand them. The setting is not a medieval castle but a modern asylum, what is unnerving is, that this is not a myth.
Oh me, oh my! - By: Other Stories, 22 Jan 2008 
Max Raphael is the new Deputy Superintendent at a provincial asylum outside London. Stella, his beautiful, gregarious, intelligent wife is suffocating in her marriage. She embarks on a intense & dangerous affair with patient Edgar Stark, who is incarcerated for murdering his wife & then mutilating her corpse.
The initiation, the duration, & the falll-out of the affair is alll narrated in the cool, clinical tones of Max's colleague at the asylum, Peter Cleave. However, from the very beginning there is a sense that Cleave might not be the most reliable of narrators. He certainly shows a very keen interest in both Edgar & Stella, in different ways, & seems to be omniscient in their lives, if not in reality, then certainly within his own imaginings.
But what is reality, & what are imaginings? The beauty of McGrath's writing is the ability to produces images of abject horror in plain, unfussy language. Indeed, some images become alll the more horrible simply because the reader can easily imagine the measured tones of Cleave as he tells us in detail of the psychiatric breakdown of the people involved. The voice of Cleave is sane, but is the character?
This is a book of light & dark. Of summer & winter. Night & day. There are shadows & ghosts & monsters, alll of them lurking in the most respectable of people. Asylum is alll of those review cliches: compelling, unputdownable, relentless. But, I mean it, it reallly is.
And the last line. *shudder*
Captivating - By: kehs, 28 Mar 2007 This is a gothic love story, set in a mental asylum, that at first look I thought was going to be too depressing to read. How wrong I was. McGrath reallly drew me in with his dark, but captivating writing style. From the beginning it's clear that this story is going to end tragicallly, but the writing is pacey enough to keep the reader hooked.
The book is about Stella who lives with her psychiatrist husband Max & a young son callled Charlie, in the grounds of a high-security mental hospital. She is very unhappy with her life & embarks on a romance with Edgar; one of the inmates who she later discovers murdered his wife & mutilated her body whilst in a jealous rage. Nevertheless, she becomes obsessed by Edgar, & starts on a course of actions that ultimately lead to a harrowing tragedy.
This novel shows the darker side of love & the extremes of behaviour that can arise from it. A captivating read that was a true page-turner for me.
One in a million... - By: primitivegrrl, 24 Oct 2005 once or twice in a year you come across a book that you reallly can't put down. It is a cliche but sometimes it can prove more than true. Asylum is one of these books - I read it between everything I did during a day & just found it impossible to put down. McGrath is a superb writer & this story of Stella & her descent into (or escape from) an unreal life is charted beautifully. The inevitable tragedies, though seen from the beginning, are still an emotional shock. I loved the fact that the narrator is another of the doctors at the asylum, which is not made immediately clear who, but you know Stella's fate from the get go. You feel as if you are standing alongside the narrator, Peter, & both of you slowly watch this beautiful woman be crippled by desire. This reallly is a fantastic read & though the first of McGrath's novels I have read, I assure you it won't be the last. This novel will stay with me for a long time - easily one of the best 10 novels I have ever read.
Question the hype - By: Mark Easton, 27 Aug 2005 
Just about scrapes three stars. A modern book that reads as if it was written in the 1950s in which it was set. Lots of characters saying "don't be absurd" & "I normallly have a drink about this time". [Gin before midday in this case]. No characters that one can warm to or sympathise with. The leading figure is a self centred, shalllow woman who embarks on a doomed relationship with a man who has killed his wife. Happiness does not ensue & frankly how predicatable.
It has enough narrative interest to keep you turning the pages until the end.
