Reviews

The Rack by A.E. Ellis

loxonstag's review

challenging dark emotional funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not exactly what you'd call an easy read (especially for a hypochondriac like myself!) but I nevertheless found this tale of tuberculosis patients convalescing in the French Alps to be quite absorbing in its rather mannered, darkly comic, very British kind of way. 

I really enjoyed the love story, passionate and tumultuous in the way relationships tend to be when serious illness is a factor. Although I did end up having to pretend the characters were a little closer in age...1958 was a different time I guess.

burritapal_1's review

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Spoiler

 Paul davenant, the protagonist of this story, is the autobiographical Stand-in for the author. He comes out of the British army with tuberculosis, and Is sent, along with other students, by the International student organization, to a sanitirium in the French Alps. 
The treatment for tuberculosis at this time, after World War II, is torturous and Not A cure. They do things like puncture your chest and fill you up with iodine and oil, and then tell you to shake yourself all around like a dog getting out of water. Moreover, they leave an amount of oil in your chest. Can you imagine? I was horrified at some of the treatments. And they never got him better, they just kept him there, to keep their business going, I guess. 
" 'Now I shall endeavor to make a little hole in your rib,' announced Dr Vernet. He inserted another and thicker needle into the track of the first. then needle followed needle with great rapidity, boring and enlarging..... And the whole time Dr Vernet sustained a commentary for the benefit of his assistants, with occasional asides to Paul. 'this will not hurt,' he would say, inserting another needle into the aperture, or dryly and with candor: 'attention! This will hurt.' he raised a lancet, and Paul objected: 'I won't have that in.' 'Ach, Ach,' replied Dr Vernet. 'no, you can put it down. I won't have it.' 'you have always murders in England because your policeman don't carry revolvers,' said Dr Vernet, plunging the lancet into the hole. With its progressive enlargements came the accompanying sound of the splintering of bone. 
At last Dr Vernet lowered a thick needle into the aperture and it remained upright. To the free end he affixed a hypodermic syringe. 'now I draw out your marrow blood. It will hurt.' as blood gushed up into the transparent cylinder Paul's chest twisted forward despite the fact that both assistant doctors Had been securing his shoulders to the table."
In the course of this horrifying treatment, Paul becomes extremely ill, his temperature rising high, and going into a semi coma: "taking practically no nourishment, he soon became incapable of evacuation. periodically sœur Yvette would set him upon a chamber pot, aiding him to retain his position by supporting his shoulders. But her presence inhibited him. One morning, following the administration of an enema, he begged to be left alone. Such was his weakness, however, that after defecation he fell backwards onto his bed, the contents of the pot soiling his sheets and contaminating his flesh. Sœur Yvette came to his assistance, but found him mute and paralyzed with horror. Lying quite still, he made no effort to withdraw his limbs from their abominable contact. 
He felt that there was nothing more; that life, engaged in his progressive humiliation, had overborne itself; that by this new blow its scope was not enlarged, but terminated, for his spirit was now dead and he could be tormented no further. 
Sœur Yvette called for the assistance of another nurse, and with her help Paul was transferred to the Chaise lounge. He lay without movement where he was put, his genitals exposed, his head inclining backwards over a bolster. When Sœur Yvette had finished changing his bed, she bathed his limbs, but Paul remained limp, beyond protestation or cooperation."
One of Paul's fellow students, John Cotterell, is actually killed by the treatment. "the morning after the induction of the pneumothorax [this is where they would stick a large gauge needle into your chest wall, and blow it full of air.] the duty sister had found John Cotterell's bed to be empty. A search had been made of the sanatorium, following which the police had been notified. Then a cowman had reported that he had discovered a young man, half suffocated, on a mountain pass. John Cotterell had been brought back to the sanitorium. He was wearing flannel trousers, a pajama jacket and stockings which were shredded and stiff With blood. Under the pressure of the climb, his lung had perforated. He had been given oxygen but had lost consciousness and had died a few hours later."
Speaking of business, this sanatorium was saving money by serving the most atrocious food. Supposedly, customers could go to another sanitorium that had the same level of medical care, with better food, and pay more.
Things Were especially hard for our protagonist, Paul Davenant, because he was a vegetarian. Even though he still ate eggs and cheese, I liked him for this:
"Paul had his own food problems. For over 10 years he had eaten neither fish nor meat. (initially he had been unable to reconcile himself to the slaughterhouse. Later - when it had seemed to him that every principle was arbitrary - flesh eating as such had become repugnant).... Fresh vegetables were rarely served; a diffident request for a vegetarian diet had resulted in the substitution of a piece of cheese (always have the same indeterminate brand) for meat. For some weeks now he had received a twice daily serving of cheese, potatoes and gravy."
This was the craziest book. It lost one star from this reader because I don't read French. I do know a little French, because I took 2 years in high school, and also because I speak Spanish and the languages have many similar bases in the words, but what's up with this publisher that they couldn't add footnotes for the reader? Or was this book only meant for European audiences. In the United States, we don't need to speak French, we need to speak Spanish!
Also, I was not amused by the dumb little romance between Paul and a fellow patient.  She's 17 and he's 27, and he wants to marry her? Grooming her 😡
At the end of the book, Paul is at his wits end. He's been at the sanitorium for going on 3 years now, and all that's happened is more and more torture.  Moreover, his little girlfriend's mother has written him a letter telling him that he needs to forget about her, that it's taking him too long to get well, and she needs to go on with her life. This is where Paul really loses every hope.
One of the doctors treating him seems to sense what's going on in Paul's mind, and has a little talk with him about it: 
"....'do you ever spare a thought for judgment day?' he added. 
'judgment day!'
'I mean if you kill yourself. There is an old superstition, monsieur, that one is best advised to live out one's life. Or don't you mind running the risk of having it all over again? In any case why is it that when people think in terms of another world they always assume that it will be governed on different principles from those which God - if he exists - saw fit to establish in this one?' he paused for comment, but received none...."
" … o, let him pass! He hates him
that would upon the rack of this tough world 
stretch him out longer."

 And with that, Paul jumped out the window.
 

mjeezys's review against another edition

4.0

8/10
incredibly depressing

holly_ey's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

Consider this an experiment of the gods in what the reader can endure...2* is almost certainly too harsh for the quality of the writing, but a book with such slow development and this much angst has no business being this long. It's as if the protracted storytelling is part of the metaphor for the painful, neverending medical merry-go-round of the story itself. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt

librarylucy's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

psr's review

5.0

This novel is quite exceptional, a totally involving, emerging experience about life in the shadow of existence-threatening, debilitating disease. Try it, if you're feeling strong and not seeking a feelgood read.