Robert JacobyBesprekingen

I received this book as part of the first reads giveaway and I wasn't sure what to expect. From the beginning, I had a hard time connecting with Richard, the main character. I felt as if he spent most of time just complaining about everything in his life. As I read on, I kept waiting for something major to occur, whether in the past or the present, but I don't feel like that event ever came. I finished the book still feeling like questions were unanswered and I was missing something.

I never quite got used to the writing in this novel either. I often had trouble deciding whether Richard's thoughts were inside his head or actually being spoken. Some conversations seemed to be solely in his own head but it was hard to tell.

In all, I don't think the style of this book was for me.

There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes by Robert Jacoby
Cloud Books, 10/1/2012
Trade Paperback, 342 pages
ISBN-13: 9780983969709
robert-jacoby.com/

Description:
You need your eyes, don't you?
So does Richard Issych. Two weeks ago he overdosed. Now he's fighting for his life, finding threatening notes like that one on his nightstand.
"There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes"is the story of 19-year-old Richard Issych, who wakes to a harsh new reality inside an inpatient unit. Now Richard's journey turns into one of revelations and struggling through his own reasons for being as he discovers new meanings for redemption, sacrifice, hope, love-and the will to live.
In the end, what are the reasons Noah packed no clothes? Richard can only imagine. But it has something to do with a size 3XL bowling shirt with the name "Noah" stitched over the pocket.
There are reasons . . . everyone uses his own dictionary.
There are reasons . . . some new heavens come from some new hells.
There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes

My Thoughts:
There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes by Robert Jacoby introduces us to 19 year old Richard Issych, a young man whose failed attempt at suicide has left him committed to the psychiatric unit of a hospital. We are privy to Richard's internal dialogue as well as what he actually is saying to those around him. Richard feels disconnected and alienated from everyone, including his family. Richard, however, knows in his mind at least, that he is not crazy and doesn't belong in with the other "nuts".

In presenting Richard's thoughts, Jacoby uses a stream-of-consciousness style of writing that mimics what is going on in Richard's mind, so the writing left me feeling discombobulated, anxious and weary. it is not an easy story to follow along because Richard's thoughts are so scattered and his grasp on reality can be tenuous at times. His whole experience is viewed through his eyes and his perceptions of the other patients and the situations. We actually never really know how skewed Richard perception of reality is from the truth of his situation since he is an unreliable narrator.

There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes begs comparison to other novels that feature characters locked up in a psychiatric unit. For me One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest immediately came to mind, although there are other novels that may come readily to mind for others.

While I found There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes well written, I must admit that it was hard to read and extremely hard to become engage with Richard at first because his thoughts are so scattered and confusing. At first I wasn't even sure what had happened to him and what was currently happening to him. The story, such as it is, moves along rather slowly and what was reality always seemed to be in question for me. Recommended, with caution.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Cloud Books via Netgalley for review purposes.

There Are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes gets you inside of a mind with someone who tried to leave the world. It takes you through a journey of what it is like on the inside of a mental hospital. While reading such an intruding book, you are captivated into wanting to know more. The characters within the book, the conversations that took off, you never knew where a conversation would end or where it would pick up later. Who knew they “saltpetered” the ice cream. Would you think that?
Richard is the main character, you get inside his head. Once you are inside his thinking, you began to wonder if you second-guessing his decisions, just as he is. You realize how people think, and it is not just you, or how you process things, but everyone is not perfect in their own thinking.
This book is so well-written, I did get lost in some places, but it doesn’t change my mind that I would suggest others to give it a try. It isn’t something that you would think you love to read about, but even reading you are wondering if it will make to Hollywood Movies, and I think it will! Captivating is an understatement.

This book chronicles the experiences of nineteen year old Richard Issych as he adjusts to his life in a psychiatric facility after he attempts suicide. Through Richard's thoughts and the the assortment of characters the author allows us to explore various ways of coping with life and the elusive meaning of sanity. I found it to be an interesting read although at times I had trouble following what was happening and what was real or not real. The author does a very good job of developing the many characters as they cope with the rigid routine of the hospital. Although the title is interesting, I think there are other more pertinent aspects of the story that could have been used in the title.
I received my copy of the book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Richard Issych, the central character of There Are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes, knows that he is not crazy. He also believes that he would be better off dead than alive, but despite his best efforts to make that happen, he cannot seem to get the job done. But when his latest attempt to end his life fails, and Richard wakes up among the “crazies,” he cannot help but feel a little superior to his fellow inmates. His awareness that all the other patients are crazy has to mean that he is not like them. Right?

Although he is only nineteen years old, Richard already considers himself to be one of life’s failures. In fact, his latest failed suicide attempt proves again that he cannot do even that job correctly. He has already tried – and failed – at everything: work, college, friends. Now he just wants to go to sleep forever, and wonders why everyone can’t just leave him alone?

But much to his surprise (and that of his parents), Richard Issych will do some growing up while confined within the facility treating him for depression. He is surrounded by, and must interact daily with, an assortment of people suffering from everything from schizophrenia to complete breaks with reality. Some of those he meets are dangerous to themselves and others – and one or two of them are just dangerously innocent. Despite the odds, Richard makes a friend or two, finds love of a sort, and best of all, discovers that he wants to live after all.

Robert Jacoby’s portrayal of life inside a mental health facility walks a fine line between entertainment and insight. Because it is largely seen from a patient’s point-of-view, the “truth” is often hidden between the lines, a style that Jacoby uses effectively right up to the end of the novel. The ending, I admit, is still rather a mystery to me even after reading it three or four times, but that may very well be intentional. Perhaps it is up to each of us to decide what really happened during the book’s final scene – and whether or not Richard is as sane as he thinks he is.

Rated at: 3.5½

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Richard has just tried to commit suicide. It's not the first time, and who knows if it will be the last. He will be committed to a mental hospital, and he signs himself in before he knows what he's doing. Richard is only 19.

The writing at the beginning of this novel got me worried .The stream of consciousness style doesn't normally do it for me, as I find it really disconcerting. In this instance though, it worked the majority of the time. This was not a comfortable book to read. So if you were looking for comfort, don't read it.

I think out of all the characters, I liked the schizophrenic the best. The depiction of depression here was quite accurate though (from my personal experience only), although I would have liked to know more clearly about the cause behind it.

The cover sort of appealed to me, and sort of didn't. It fit in with Richard's life, in that the colours of his life weren't really clear, and tied in with the way he often saw strange things. The language, the strange metaphors I think they were pretty amazing and unbelievable.

I didn't feel that the ending was satisfying. I didn't understand about the shirt, or whether Richard was feeling better, or whether he was still hallucinating. For much of the novel it felt like nothing was happening, and then there wasn't even much of a climax at the end.

What I would have liked was a preface telling me what time period this book was set in. The medication Richard was on seemed to make him hallucinate which is a rare side effect of depressive drugs. And isolation wards are not as common as they once were, or at least, they aren't applied quite in that way. It's a very jaded view of the mental health system.

Adults only on this one, unless you want to freak out a teenager. Frequent mentions of porn and sex. Three stars from me, simply because I wasn't satisfied with the ending. A good example of this style of writing though.

I received a free copy from the author in return for my honest review. This did not influence my opinion in any way.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this review, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Regular readers will remember Robert Jacoby, who last year gave us the interesting sailing oral history Escaping from Reality Without Really Trying; and now Jacoby has a new book out, a fictional novel this time, entitled There Are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes and concerning the manytimes dysfunctional ways that enforced mental institutions for teens were still working even up to the early 1980s. But alas, although this is a well-written book with a deft stream-of-consciousness touch, which will strongly appeal to those specifically seeking out the subject, unfortunately its dust-jacket copy declaring it "Girl, Interrupted meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" turns out to be more detrimentally true than I think the author even intended, in that this is mostly a string of well-worn tropes that will be overly familiar to anyone already acquainted with those earlier books. It's a shame, because Jacoby has an engaging voice that could be put to good use with a more unique and more interesting subject matter; but Noah unfortunately is not it, a fine exercise for what it is but a novel that will sadly make most people shrug upon finishing, then will promptly be forgotten. All this should be kept in mind when deciding whether to pick up a copy.

Out of 10: 7.5

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

This clever book is a good example of what I perhaps like best about what comes from the world of basement presses; for while it's ostensibly the memoirs of a forty-year career sailor, with just as many salty, amazing stories as you would imagine someone in his position would have, it's actually written as a series of direct transcripts of oral conversations conducted with him, giving the whole thing this very idiom-based, Studs-Turkel-like feel. As such, then, some will naturally tire of its Mametesque clipped rhythm and coarse language; but since basement presses are already targeting a small, niche crowd, they can afford to put out books like these with a very specific audience, a title which its fans (like me) will find flabbergasting and delightful in equal turns. It comes recommended in that spirit.

Out of 10: 8.6