Illness Lesson (Beams) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Think City Upon a Hill ideals and The Scarlet Letter-style misogyny, and you'll have a pretty good idea of this sly debut novel, which scarily hints that, since the 19th century, perhaps not a whole lot has changed.… Best of all is Beams's tone: ironic and arch when relaying the spirited optimism of Samuel's precious experiments, urgent and sinister when depicting their nightmarish outcomes. Astoundingly original, [an] impressive debut.
Siobhan Jones - New York Times Book Review


[U]nusual and transporting.This is Alcott meets Shirley Jackson, with a splash of Margaret Atwood. It’s dark, quirky and even titillating, in a somewhat appalling way… a series of creepy events and phenomena that balance on the edge between realism and ghost story.
Marion Winik - Washington Post


The past is a clever place from which to discuss modern preoccupations around ownership, identity and the body.… In the present-day narrative, a handful of young women choose to attend the elite boarding school. Initially well drawn and vibrant, most of these characters sadly fade to obscurity, which is a particular shame given the subject matter of the book. The problem is one of overloading—Caroline’s mother’s back story, and the mystery of her death, is given too much prominence.… Beams’ depiction of the treatment of women at the hands of men—even supposedly enlightened men—recalls The Fever by Megan Abbott. There are echoes of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, too. Beams keeps us guessing as to the girls’ culpability, though a rushed ending sweeps them off stage, choosing instead to focus on Caroline’s story.… The Illness Lesson is a colourful, memorable story about women’s minds and bodies, and the time-honoured tradition of doubting both.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


[P]art horror, part case study and—I mean this as a compliment—part feminist polemic.… Reading The Illness Lesson is like watching someone with superior intelligence work out a proof. If I felt a tinge of sorrow that its characters did not necessarily surprise me, the satisfaction in seeing a problem so flawlessly worked out was a worthy substitute. The fog literally gets under their skin, and by the end of the novel, it also got under mine.
San Francisco Chronicle


[P]rovocative.… Beams excels in the details of this prescription. The sections on symptoms and their causes expose archaic misinformation and enforced misogyny.… Despite its finely wrought prose and incisive dialogue, The Illness Lesson is often overburdened by its obvious message and its telegraphed plot. Nevertheless, it is a scathing indictment of early toxic masculinity, a measured diatrbe against male-dominated medical and educational institutions.… Ultimately, it is a blistering condemnation of a patriarchal society which would deter the empowerment of independent female thinking. It also suggests that sometimes a bird is just a bird. Except when it’s not.
Washington Independent Review of Books


This masterfully considered if uneven study of gender and society cramps readers into the quarters of a 19th-century New England school for girls.…Clare Beams’ cool, cutting prose hypnotically evokes the oppression of female bodies and minds, though her rushed conclusion feels less vivid than frenetic.
Entertainment Weekly


[D]aring.… Beams excels in her depiction of Caroline, an intriguingly complex character, and in her depiction of the school, which allows the reader a clear view of changing gender roles in the period, with parallels to today’s sexual abuse scandals..…  [P]owerful and resonant.
Publishers Weekly


Beams successfully shapes the characters who tell the story, capturing the mores of the times and delving deeply into the psychological aspects of the situation. The underlying secret creates a tension that is resolved only in the final pages. Readers of general fiction will enjoy.
Library Journal


(Starred review) [L]uminous.…  This suspenseful and vividly evocative tale expertly explores women’s oppression as well as their sexuality through the eyes of a heroine who is sometimes maddening, at other times sympathetic, and always wholly compelling and beautifully rendered.
Booklist


(Starred review) Beams takes risk after risk…, and they all seem to pay off.… [T]he friction between the unsettling thinking of the period and its 21st century resonances make for an electrifying read.…  A satisfyingly strange novel from the one-of-a-kind Beams.
Kirkus Reviews