Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Madhouse of Love by Peter G. Mackie

In the book The Madhouse of Love, by Peter G Mackie is a very challenging read, but leaves you in awe. His true, yet dramatic tale of his own experiences in life may leave an impact on the reader. Tony Whitfield was a young teenager at the time of his admittance to the Adolescent Unit of a psychiatric hospital. Being only around the age of 12, he merely was "acting the goat". Tony spent nearly his whole teenage life in and out, not wanting to part with the life he grew to love and accept. There is where he learns about the "fruits" of nature and learns how self-conflicting his infatuation with women can really be. Even though Tony was released a number of times, he always finds himself back at the asylum.
The Madhouse of Love was quite a deep and riveting story. Age-wise, I'd recommend this story for the more advanced reader due to difficulty in understanding the author's dialect. Peter Mackie's points change often and I often had to go back and re-read what I read.


Yet, at some points I really could relate to his thoughts and I could always argue against them. Generally, this tale would be considered a "coming of age" one, due to life lessons learned and self-realization. The author's use of distinct vocabulary was very powerfully projected.

The ending of the book, I must say, wasn't very impressive but the theme of the book; "The place of comfort is never easy to let go of", was very meaningful.

Overall, the story was charming and made me smirk every couple of pages. Recommended for mature readers due to intense vocabulary, confusing translations, and content more aimed for 17+.
 
I rated this for it's intense language and sexual references of the mind of a growing teenage boy. That and the difficulty of the read.
 
Reviewer Age:18
Reviewer City, State and Country: Naugatuck, Connecticut United States