Read this when
An Angel at My Table
They called her shyness madness and nearly operated on her brain. Her stories got there first. 📖
Who it's for
Frame narrates from inside an intensely shy, observant mind: the terror of being looked at, the effort of performing 'normal' at teachers' college, the relief of retreating into books and words.
Feelings it meets
What it is
The second volume of New Zealand writer Janet Frame's three-part autobiography, published in 1984, following To the Is-Land. It covers her training as a teacher, her leaving the classroom and breakdown, and the years of psychiatric hospitalization that followed, during which she was given a schizophrenia diagnosis later recognized as incorrect.
Where to find it
In print (volume 2 alone, or in the one-volume An Angel at My Table: The Complete Autobiography) and as an e-book; widely available in libraries (Libby/Hoopla, Internet Archive lending). Not public do.
Before you start
Heads up: A suicide attempt and shock treatment.
Age: Ages 16+
This above all: to thine own self be true,William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3
