The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward

I’ll give Mary Jane Ward 4 out of 5 birds for her novel The Snake Pit! This is a tough book to find my friends. I bid for it on Ebay and waited patiently for it to come. My good friend Genie recommended to me because she knows I like the crazy in life. If I could be so bold to compare this book, it would be an earlier The Bell Jar. I felt like I was on the ward with Virgina Cunningham living with all the other “crazies.” I couldn’t believe that shock treatment was used so freely and some of the treatments were pretty out there. I’m so glad that helping those with mental illness has come as far as it has . We still have a ways to go. The only thing that was hard with this book was the jumping around. I often found myself flipping back pages to be like “Wait where are we now.” It’s a great and quick read. I’d recommend it to some of my Women’s and Gender Studies professors and those preparing to deal with mental illness. Now good luck finding a copy! Also it brought me SO much JOY to hold an old book and read it. There’s just something about vintage.

View all my reviews