By: alex Lewis

alex Lewis — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:28:47 +0000

Well meaning people shake their heads disapprovingly at the widespread fear of mental illness – but in fact there is plenty to be afraid of, not least the anguish of sufferers.
In Love’s Melody, Natasha Wilde describes the pain she suffered with a piercing honesty that opens the door to understanding of the feelings of someone with mental health problems. This understanding goes some way to dispel the fear caused by ignorance.
Natasha’s unusually clear awareness of her illness exposes the ambiguity of our attitude towards this condition. Escape from reality is a recurrent theme, reality sometimes too dull, and sometimes too painful. Part of her knows reality must be faced, but part, particularly her creative side, enjoys the heightened sensitivity, particularly to beauty, that psychosis gives.
Since at least the time of Dryden, the relation between creative genius and madness has been well explored.
He wrote: “Great wits to madness sure are near allied,
And their partitions to their bands divide.”
This relation raises questions about the nature of truth, but also provides an excuse for lazy thinking and self indulgence.
These are avoided by Natasha, but her ambiguity extends to a distrust of doctors and medications, despite a periodic acceptance that they have saved her from worse horrors.
A major theme of the book is Love. Love of her daughter is an emotion whose existence and validity are never questioned, but it brings anxiety and that pervasive sense of guilt which plagues all but the densest of parents. Most of us can relate to this, as we can to the search for a mutual love with another human being who can provide romance, excitement and security, sadly so often incompatible. In her most lucid moments, Natasha knows that “no mortal can truly offer such a love, such a warmth”, and she often reveals a sense that only divine love can provide a resolution.
A longing for a place of beauty and peace is another theme that will resonate with readers. In some passages the description is of a real place of happiness nostalgically revisited in her imagination, in others an idealised remote rural landscape for which she longs.
Violent external events, in for instance Ireland and Iraq, contrast with these visions in a readily understood way.
Natasha has always been able to express herself in dance and painting – this book reveals a gift for words, sometimes delightfully expressed in jingles or old rhymes.
Loves Melody gives us an insight into the world of mental illness, but it also has something to say about the universal human condition.

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By: alex Lewis