Synopses & Reviews
Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the normal” life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.
Joanne Greenberg is an internationally renowned, award-winning author of 13 novels and four collections of short stories. She lives with her husband in Colorado. They have two sons. Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the normal” life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.
A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind.”Chicago Tribune
Convincing and emotionally gripping.”The New York Times
Reveals deep truths about mental illness . . . The author has achieved a rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind.”Chicago Tribune
"Absorbing, powerful, moving."The Saturday Review
"Vivid tableaux of life in a mental institution . . . Though the book deals with infinite sorrows and terrors, the total effect is heartening."The New York Herald Tribune
Review
“Convincing and emotionally gripping.”—The New York Times
“A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind.”—Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Joanne Greenbergs semi-autobiographical novel stands as a timeless and unforgettable portrayal of mental illness.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the “normal” life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.
“A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind.”—Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Featuring a new Afterword by the author, Greenberg's semi-autobiographical novel stands as a timeless and unforgettable portrayal of mental illness and remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant as when it was first published in 1964.
Synopsis
Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the normal life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.
About the Author
Joanne Greenberg is an internationally renowned, award-winning author of 13 novels and four collections of short stories. She lives with her husband in Colorado. They have two sons.
Reading Group Guide
1. How do Esther and Jacob respond to Deborahs illness? What does the novels opening scene indicate about their different parenting approaches? 2. Discuss the nature of Deborahs imaginary world. What are the characteristics of Yr? What do the Collect and the Censor want? What rules does Deborah set for herself based on what they tell her? 3. In her afterword, the author writes, “Many psychiatrists with backgrounds in chemical therapies felt that schizophrenia—which had been my diagnosis—is incurable. … Statistically, of course, more than one-third of us do recover.” What was your initial reaction to Deborahs case file, appearing in chapter two? How optimistic were you about her prognosis? 4. What illusions do the novels “healthy” characters create for themselves? To what degree do Dr. Fried and Deborahs parents create their own imperfect realities? 5. Deborah experienced the pain of anti-Semitism throughout her childhood, and the shadow of Hitler is described in many of the novels passages, including in chapter twelve. To what extent did this history contribute to her illness? 6. Why are Deborah and Carla drawn to each other? How are their views of the world alike and different? Do they trust each other? 7. In chapter six, “upuru” is defined as “Yrs word for the whole memory and emotion of that last hospital day,” referring to the surgery Deborah experienced as a little girl. What could have been done to make the surgery less traumatic? How did it influence her perception of healers, and the promise of healing? 8. How does Deborah think of her body? In her mind, why is it necessary to hurt herself physically? What does suicide mean to her? 9. Discuss the culture of Deborahs mental hospital. How do the patients form alliances? How much power do they have? How much power do they think they have? Do its wards, hierarchies, rules, and rule breakers remind you of any other institutions (in politics, in corporate America, or elsewhere)? 10. What does Miss Corals instruction signify to Deborah? What is their understanding of the purpose of language? 11. The author notes in the afterword that when her novel was first published in the 1960s, “madness” was sometimes seen as a liberating, creative force. How did her work challenge this belief? How might Deborah have fared in the twenty-first century? 12. In chapter twenty-eight, Deborah tries to imagine her employment qualifications. What does this passage say about her state of mind at this point in her life? How has her self-perception changed since the beginning of the novel?