1kidzdoc
This thread is for discussion of Grace Williams Says it Loud. I read it last year, and I'll write a review for it later this week.
2vancouverdeb
I'm just about 20 pages into Grace Williams Says it Loud and I'm enthralled so far.
3vancouverdeb
I just finished off Grace Wiliams Say it Loud. 4.25 stars from me - I picked up that star system from Mark in 75 books in 2011, so that mean 4 stars in LT stars. The story is a very important one . I'll write more about it later. I'm very glad that I read it and I hope that more people will decide to do the same. I wrote a few comments for now in my 75 for 2011 thread - vancouverdeb plans to read 75 books in 2011. The link to my thread is on my profile.
4vancouverdeb
Here is my review of Grace Williams Says it Loud - touchstones not working for me right now... here is the link - http://www.librarything.com/work/10103972/reviews/73175719
5souloftherose
I just saw this article and video posted on the BBC news website today about abuse of patients with learning difficulties at a residential home which was uncovered by the BBC which reminded
When reading Grace Williams I was so thankful that the treatment of people with learning difficulties and other disabilities has come so far since the 1950s/1960s. Now I'm not so sure that's the case. I'm so shocked by the video and the other articles that I don't really know what to say at the moment.
When reading Grace Williams I was so thankful that the treatment of people with learning difficulties and other disabilities has come so far since the 1950s/1960s. Now I'm not so sure that's the case. I'm so shocked by the video and the other articles that I don't really know what to say at the moment.
6vancouverdeb
5 - well, I've only read 4 of the Orange Contenders for this year. I think maybe Memory of Love will win the Orange, but in retrospect - the book that has most stayed with me is Grace Williams Says it Loud. I reallly applaud the author for bringing forward such issues. I just watched the video - and yes it really is shocking. Sadly, I think we've come less far than we'd like to think. If Grace Williams Says It Loud takes the Orange - I'll celebrate the attention that the book bring to the way many instutionlized places treat our weakest and most vunerable members of society.
7judylou
I am halfway through this book and I'm finding it completely mesmerising. Grace is such a wonderful character. I have been thinking while reading it how far we have come in the treatment of people like Grace, but perhaps not everyone has come so far?
8kidzdoc
>6 vancouverdeb: I would be happy if Grace Williams Says it Loud is selected as the winner, even though I would still prefer to see The Memory of Love come out on top.
9judylou
Out of the three I have read - 'Room', 'Great House' and 'Grace Williams Says it Loud', I think that Grace is my winner!
11Citizenjoyce
Grace Williams, a small misshapen woman, lead a small life which seemed to conspire to rip every small joy from her grasp. It wasn't until I'd finished Grace Williams Says it Loud that I found an article about Emma Henderson in which she says she based Grace's story on the life of her own sister who was institutionalized for 35 years. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1281871/Emma-Henderson-talks-sister-....
Clare, the sister, and Grace, the fictional character, were both born small and developed slowly. Both had whatever small physical grasp they had on the world ripped from them at the age of 6 when they developed polio. Both were pronounced ineducable and the parents reluctantly caved to the pressure of caring for very difficult children by placing them in large, uncaring institutions. Both had a bratty, petted baby sister: Grace's was Sarah, Clare's was the author Emma herself. The picture that accompanies the article shows Clare sitting on a piano played by the feet of a fine looking boy. Could this be Philip Casterton Smelt, characterized as Daniel, the debonair armless bon vivant and love of Grace's life? Emma knew she hated visiting Clare in the institution, it stank, Clare stank, the atmosphere was noisy and oppressive. She couldn't give Clare back the years of her life lost to that institution, so instead she wrote, in lovely language, the way Clare may have seen the world. On the outside is a hunch backed, stiff limbed "spastic" from whose large mouth bow wows a large pink tongue; but her mind inside loves music, endures hardship and cruelty, and sees the world in its minute beauty. I hope, in her survivor's guilt, Emma made the institution more horrendous that it was. I'm sure much of the staff was uncaring or taunting, I'm sure many of Clare/Grace's belongings were stolen, but I so hope the sadistic doctor was just a boogie man nightmare. Hats off to Emma Henderson for writing about a life most of us have glimpsed only in passing but one that, with a different luck of the draw, could have been our own.
For whatever reason, this book is very difficult to get in the US so I'm including a little exerpt just to make you think you should make the effort to find it:
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/images/shortlist/says_it_loud.pdf
Clare, the sister, and Grace, the fictional character, were both born small and developed slowly. Both had whatever small physical grasp they had on the world ripped from them at the age of 6 when they developed polio. Both were pronounced ineducable and the parents reluctantly caved to the pressure of caring for very difficult children by placing them in large, uncaring institutions. Both had a bratty, petted baby sister: Grace's was Sarah, Clare's was the author Emma herself. The picture that accompanies the article shows Clare sitting on a piano played by the feet of a fine looking boy. Could this be Philip Casterton Smelt, characterized as Daniel, the debonair armless bon vivant and love of Grace's life? Emma knew she hated visiting Clare in the institution, it stank, Clare stank, the atmosphere was noisy and oppressive. She couldn't give Clare back the years of her life lost to that institution, so instead she wrote, in lovely language, the way Clare may have seen the world. On the outside is a hunch backed, stiff limbed "spastic" from whose large mouth bow wows a large pink tongue; but her mind inside loves music, endures hardship and cruelty, and sees the world in its minute beauty. I hope, in her survivor's guilt, Emma made the institution more horrendous that it was. I'm sure much of the staff was uncaring or taunting, I'm sure many of Clare/Grace's belongings were stolen, but I so hope the sadistic doctor was just a boogie man nightmare. Hats off to Emma Henderson for writing about a life most of us have glimpsed only in passing but one that, with a different luck of the draw, could have been our own.
For whatever reason, this book is very difficult to get in the US so I'm including a little exerpt just to make you think you should make the effort to find it:
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/images/shortlist/says_it_loud.pdf
12Citizenjoyce
I just read the article and watched the video you posted, souloftherose. How good it was to think that these were abuses of the last century and that we had evolved better care by now, though wherever people are in complete control over others, if there is no regulation, there will be abuse.
13wookiebender
I read Grace Williams Says It Loud a few weeks ago, but have only just found a skerrick of time to make some comments here. (And I must read the articles & view the video linked to above. Another time, sorry.)
I found it spot on in so many ways with its depiction of Grace and her environment. My partner works with intellectually disabled adults (and children, sometimes) and it all rang true with what I've seen of his clients and his work. Don's had to work with people who were previously institutionalised and the behaviours they've developed through that (stealing, hoarding food, screaming incessantly, etc) you can see in the book. Currently most people - where possible - live in residential homes with 24 hour care, which is where Don comes in. (Yeah, it's a job that takes a lot of patience. I couldn't do it.)
I also really felt for Grace's Mum. No one wants to give up their child, but sometimes you have to do it for your own (or other family members') sanity. Don's had to deal with children suddenly appearing at the respite home when he worked there with their mothers unable to cope due to violent behaviour of their child. (It's always the mothers. Sorry to the blokes out there, but your track record when it comes to sticking around and caring for your disabled children isn't very good from where I'm standing. Although there are always exceptions that prove the rule, of course.)
I had an uncle who had Downs Syndrome, and he was only in a home late in life when Grandma was no longer able to look after him. I'm glad that he got to grow up with his family, and when he was in a home it wasn't one of the large institutions.
I found it spot on in so many ways with its depiction of Grace and her environment. My partner works with intellectually disabled adults (and children, sometimes) and it all rang true with what I've seen of his clients and his work. Don's had to work with people who were previously institutionalised and the behaviours they've developed through that (stealing, hoarding food, screaming incessantly, etc) you can see in the book. Currently most people - where possible - live in residential homes with 24 hour care, which is where Don comes in. (Yeah, it's a job that takes a lot of patience. I couldn't do it.)
I also really felt for Grace's Mum. No one wants to give up their child, but sometimes you have to do it for your own (or other family members') sanity. Don's had to deal with children suddenly appearing at the respite home when he worked there with their mothers unable to cope due to violent behaviour of their child. (It's always the mothers. Sorry to the blokes out there, but your track record when it comes to sticking around and caring for your disabled children isn't very good from where I'm standing. Although there are always exceptions that prove the rule, of course.)
I had an uncle who had Downs Syndrome, and he was only in a home late in life when Grandma was no longer able to look after him. I'm glad that he got to grow up with his family, and when he was in a home it wasn't one of the large institutions.
14Citizenjoyce
Thanks for those comments, wookiebender. Much of the characterization of Grace felt true, it's good to see that it was.
15vancouverdeb
I really enjoyed the book. If you look, my review is somewhere in the Grace Williams Says it Loud set of reviews! ;) It was a 4.25 read for me.
18kidzdoc
>16 mrstreme:, 17 You can order it from Amazon US for next to nothing:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/144470401X/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/144470401X/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid...
20TinaV95
I also found it super cheap today on a new site I've not used before. It is www.thriftbooks.com I am excited since I got this one and a few others that are being widely reviewed for very little money!!
21KristenMaddox
okey
