Cardinal M., The Words to Say It. An Autobiographical Novel — 1983 (Picador fiction)
Аннотация: This autobiographical bestseller, winner of the Prix Littre in 1976, is the story of a dutiful daughter who becomes paralysed by the emptiness and constrictions of her life, her Catholic family, and her upper class background. As the book begins we meet a young woman who is withdrawn, verging on catatonia, suicidal. Estranged from her husband and unable to care for her children, she is kept hidden by her family in the attic of her uncle's private hospital.She has become possessed by "It", her name for the sense of absurdity and anxiety which poisons every waking hour. But she has the presence of mind to resist the chemical treatment, spitting the pills out of her window into the gutter below. In a heroic effort she escapes. What fo;;ows is the dramatic story of her healing, how she came to call It by name, to understand It and to reconstruct her life in her own image. The story of her struggle, the rising to the surface of unburied dreams, forgotten fears, and her re-entry into the world make this one of the most memorable novels to be published this year.
