John NeufeldCríticas

"daddy, I think I'm going crazy".

Mary Nell looked up astonished.

"Oh Mr. shilling said. "Why is that?"

"I can't tell you", Lisa said. "I just think it's true. And I'm frightened."

Lisa, Bright and Dark by John Neufeld

Possible triggers..Mental Illness, attempted suicide.

My Review:

This book is described by critics as "a work of art" and it is.

I first read this as a child and have reread through the years. It remains just as great a read now as then. This book was way ahead of it's time as there was not much YA about mental illness. Of coarse times have changed and we know much more then we did then but the book ages well and this story of one young woman's tragic illness and her band of loving and loyal friends who go all in to help her remains a magnificent and important read.

A quick read (only took me a day)
It wasn't that bad, but I can't say I liked it.

This is a book about a young boy searches for answers to his questions about sex. It is a funny and straight forward approach to the subject revolving around Freddy's questions regarding the "F" word.

Gina is well-endowed compared to other girls her age and she’s aware of how boys react to that. She’s new to the California area and still emotionally scarred by the time a group of boys groped her in the public swimming pool back East. Three boys in her class (Ben, Eddie and Felix) plot to gang rape her assuming she must be experienced. Eddie is the only one who shows up at Gina’s door. Gina, who has had a kind of crush on Eddie, takes his intentions by mistake and when he makes his move she bites his neck and knees him. He runs off but at school he brags about his “conquest.” After hearing what’s being said, Gina formulates a plan to speak up in class and set the story straight. Didn’t quite get the complete angst of her having a large chest and the characters seemed two-dimensional. But her standing up for herself was a good way to handle the situation.

Disappointing. Characters were one-dimensional and I didn't feel any empathy for the main character.

This book contains the line "We all rushed to Elizabeth's house at lunch and nearly raped Dr. Donovan for news." Oh man. Neufeld follows up with "(I looked that up. It means "to seize", which is perfectly OK in this sense.)". Needless to say, this book is a little creepy since it's an older male author writing as a 16-year-old girl who is sexually naive but totally obsessed with boys.

But really, the whole thing reads less like a story about people and more like a public service announcement about mental illness in teenage girls. It's a pretty shallow portrayal. We are told Lisa is crazy, and certain incidents are described, but we're not shown much. True, it was written in 1969, but it hasn't aged well. Not impressed.½

There were a few specifics that didn't quite "ring true" for me, but that might be due to the style of the writing prevalent in the late sixties. Overall, the general issues were presented well and it was easy to identify with Lisa and her friends. Lisa herself reminded me of one of my patients many years ago--a young woman whose long black hair was parted in the middle and draped over her eyes like two heavy black draperies. On her good days, we were allowed to see her eyes and on her bad days her eyes were completely covered. A good read and I'm glad the book was selected for reprinting.

This book is definitely dated in its social references and hopefully, in its portrayal of how mental illness is dealt with in families and public schools. However, it remains a strong story about young people who are willing to do anything necessary to get a friend the help she needs.

This was probably a good book back in 1969, but it's terminally dated now, much like the similar I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. Lisa would probably, nowadays, be diagnosed with schizophrenia.

If you want to see how mental illness was ignored back then, or if you're a middle-aged adult wanting to go back to your teenage years, this might be good to read. But the modern reader should understand that psychiatrists, and the general public, take a much different approach to Lisa's problems today than they did at the time this story was written.

I suspect that Alfred Hitchcock would have loved April Fool, John Neufeld’s darkly comic novel about a man struggling to cope with the realization that more years of his life are behind than ahead of him. April Fool, in fact, shares many of the elements often present in classic Hitchcock films of the 1950s and 1960s: suspense, a gallows sense of humor, and quirky, often unlikable and weak, characters that get into situations way over their heads.

George Willetts and his wife Peg, in search of what they see as a more suitable lifestyle for people their age, have moved from New York City to small town Connecticut. Peg has settled in rather nicely to her new life but George is not adjusting nearly so well. George, in fact, has developed the unfortunate habit of imagining that he is having a fatal heart attack during the wee hours of the morning and has become quite the regular at his local hospital emergency room. He has even admitted to his analyst that his one remaining desire in life is to have one last romantic fling so that he will be able to die in the knowledge that he truly experienced life and did not waste his final years.

George, ever hopeful that he will find an attractive woman for that one last fling, largely confines his search to the internet where he exchanges romantic email fantasies with would-be lovers. But that all changes one day with his chance meeting of well-known author, Valerie Herrick, a beautiful woman who seems as attracted to George as he is to her.

To say that George is smitten by Valerie is an understatement, so once she makes it clear that she wants no part of a relationship in which she plays the role of “the other woman,” George has to decide just how much he is willing to do to keep her in his life. He is a world-class liar, having worked most of his life as campaign consultant to various politicians of all stripes, so he has little difficulty in explaining the presence of a wife in a way that keeps Valerie on the hook, at least for the short term.

But George wants much more than the kind of long distance relationship he and Valerie have limited themselves to, and he knows that he must decide, once and for all, whether or not he is willing to do whatever it takes to become a real part of Valerie’s life. And that is when George learns who he really is.

April Fool does not offer the laugh-out-loud variety of dark comedy. Rather, John Neufield uses humor to get inside George Willetts in a way that keeps him from coming across as quite the villain that he probably is. George, though, is really kind of a dolt and watching him scheme his way into the arms of his new lover is a bit like watching a train wreck – hard to look away from even though you anticipate the impact of the crash.

Rated at: 3.5½

A very good, realistic, sad protrayal of a young girl's descent into madness, and her parent's denial.

Lisa is going crazy. Not goofy or silly - seriously crazy. The adults in her life don't believe her. Her friends do, but can they help enough? Lisa has to do something drastic before the grownups will pay attention.

I read this years ago, and only remember a few of the details. It's about a 16-year-old girl who is struggling with mental illness, and her family and school refuse to acknowledge or help her deal with the situation.

Outdated, I think, reading it with adult eyes. I first read it when I was 11 or 12, and I thought I was getting away with reading a "grown-up" book. I was fascinated then, but reading it now I'm not as entranced. People say it's an accurate peek into mental illness, but I thought it seemed unrealistic, at least concerning the people in Lisa's life... maybe that's the datedness of it coming out. --rwj