Dove
in A Window, a book recently published by Marvin Books
and written by Jean Marie Haugen is a rare chance to enter
a new dimension, namely the workings of the inner mind.
Right from the start Haugen takes us
to a place we have never been before by introducing us
to the main character, Angela Hewson, a woman who has
just had a serious car accident. But Angela is not your
average 30-year-old single female.
The reader's very first meeting with
Angela is in the hospital where she is recuperating from
the accident -- at least that's what she's been told.
The accident itself occupies one of those missing pieces
in Angela's memory.
We learn that she works hard in the
family's deli, the very place she discovered her father's
body--murdered--six months earlier.
Who would want to kill her father, she
wondered. Did she? It bothered Angela that she had so
many blank spaces in her memory and, as her mother repeatedly
reminded her, Angela was seriously unstable. Was her car
accident just a ploy for attention--or was she still despondent
over her father's death, trying to kill herself?
Well, no, not exactly. Angela is diagnosed
with Multiple Personality Disorder by a psychiatrist and
his surgeon colleague. As the personalities begin to reveal
themselves, the reader is taken in to the various rooms
of Angela's mind and can see events from many different
perspectives. Each personality views the same events from
a new angle.
As the story unfolds, attempts to reintegrate
Angela's various personalities fail because Angela's controlling
Mother doesn't want the medical team interfering with
her daughter's life. A struggle ensues over who should
ultimately have custody of Angela or what should happen
to her.
The story is graphic and gritty, taking
the reader on a roller coaster of emotions. This is a
journey into how we all think and how we react to depression
and dire circumstances. Beyond that, the struggle for
reintegration is at times breathtaking, since readers
will not be prepared for some of the surprises which Haugen
has knitted into the personalities.
Dove in A Window is a page turner and hard to put down
until all the mysteries of Angela's difficulties are finally
reconciled. |