By: Mel Cobb

Mel Cobb — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:02:07 +0000

Having discovered the writings of Bill Bailey through his earlier series of five novels constructed around a quirky modern-day London detective, I was delighted to find his latest effort, Is Alice? Looking forward to another pyrotechnical display of his story-telling skills, I was not at all prepared for the depth and power of Mr. Bailey’s newest. On the surface, it’s a love story, but unlike any other I’ve encountered. Through layer after layer of connecting plot tissue, Mr. Bailey illuminates some of the darkest, yet transcendent corners of that sometime monster we know as the Mental Health System. Seemingly little related threads, from the sublime delights of classical music to the practice of Judo, weave together into a terrifying exploration of the human mind under siege. Not just from the perspective of the fascinating woman who is besieged, but also from the resourceful, persistent, and relentless man who comes to love her. The apparently small and claustrophobic world of north London continually metamorphoses into the macrocosm of the outer-most reaches of universal experience. The struggles and eventual triumph of this pair of star-crossed lovers offer the reader a journey from the depths of despair and hopelessness to the heights of physical pleasure and contemplative delights. This is no mere “Cuckoo’s Nest”, it is “Dante’s Inferno” set to the music of Mozart, Mahler and Shubert. There, but for the grace of God and the power of the individual human mind go we all.

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By: Mel Cobb