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Original Title:	Owls Do Cry
ISBN:	0807609560 (ISBN13: 9780807609569)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	New Zealand

Owls Do Cry

Janet Frame

Paperback | Pages: 210 pages

Rating: 4.01 | 1303 Users | 139 Reviews

List Regarding Books Owls Do Cry

Title	:	Owls Do Cry
Author	:	Janet Frame
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 210 pages
Published	:	March 1st 1982 by George Braziller (first published 1957)
Categories	:	Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Classics. Mental Health. Mental Illness. Literary Fiction. Womens

Narrative In Pursuance Of Books Owls Do Cry

Did I enjoy reading this? No, but that is because of the subject matter. This is a book about the mentally ill, the physically ill, aging and death. It records the darker side of human behavior; how humans behave toward the impoverished, the ill and the aging. The portrayal is uncomfortably accurate.

This was Janet Frame's first novel and it has strong autobiographical elements. She was incorrectly institutionalized as a schizophrenic. She was institutionalized for a decade but avoided a lobotomy. Her writing had begun to be published and a doctor saw that maybe rather than being ill she was simply expressing a creative sensibility. Her life story is moving. But should one judge a book by the author's difficult life or the value of the book? I don't even judge a book by its value, but rather by my own personal reaction to it! I would give it five stars if I were to rate the book by the author's difficulties or as proof that what is defined as mentally ill is debatable.

How is the writing? Is it special? Yes, absolutely. Think free verse poetry. I personally have difficulty with poetry, but this is easy to read. Much of the book is written employing a semi-stream-of-consciousness narrative. You perceive how the character thinks. The author's decade in an institution and her own troubled thoughts (two of her sisters drowned) are used to good effect. The dialogs are perfect. You hear what people DO say.

Humor? Yes, even given the dark tone of the book, there is humor. Even on her deathbed the author has retained her sense of humor. When she was diagnosed with incurable leukemia she was told that they would do all they could to make the few weeks that remained comfortable. She jokingly responded, "No one has ever cared about my quality of life before!" Here are some lines that made me smile. Daphne, who is the central character in the book, is speaking of her father's hygiene routines and talks of, "....the powder that he sprinkled on his feet to stop them from becoming athletic." Or a depiction of a nurse "with her greet the visitor smile". Or the comment, "It must be in the family. Some of these visitors are queerer than the patients." There may be humor, but there is a lack of kind people. Maybe Daphne's mother....but she dies?!

Doctors. Should one trust doctors? This book is upsetting if you, as I do, immediately get psyched out in a medical institution. The author certainly shares my skepticism. When you enter a hospital you better be healthy if you want to exit.

And then there is the ending, the epilogue. It is very clever, and that left me loving the book. A message is left. Should I judge a book solely by the ending? Parts of the book do in fact drag.

Do you see how hard it is for me to decide on my rating?! In summary:
Good writing, poetic in tone.
A touch of humor.
Health issues, again hard for me....
Mental illness is portrayed with stunning insight.
People accurately drawn, but with an emphasis on the evil rather than the good.

The narration by Heather Bolton is outstanding. The dialect was genuine and not hard to follow. She beautifully sings the songs and recites the poetry. When Daphne sings and then her sister, you actually hear the difference. Daphne's father and mother and each sibling, each has their own voice. EXCELLENT narration which cannot be improved upon, but I insist on rating a written book and the narration of the audiobook separately.

I don't think I ever really came to feel for Daphne......so three rather than four stars. Definitely a book worth reading.

Oh yes, at the end of the audiobook there are two additional pieces, a "Biographical Sketch" by Pamela Gordon and a long, very long, "Introduction to the Author" by Lawrence Jones. I enjoyed the first but was put off by the second. I don't want to be told why I should like a book, so I stopped listening. I want to form my own opinion. I will now, having completed my review, go back and listen. This introduction, placed at the end, is more than an hour long. It has the character of a literary review. It felt promotional.

Rating Regarding Books Owls Do Cry

Ratings: 4.01 From 1303 Users | 139 Reviews

Criticism Regarding Books Owls Do Cry

Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel, the third of her novels that I've read since joining Goodreads, and my fourth overall. While I seem to recall I was a bit more puzzled than blown away by the first novel of hers that I read, Scented Gardens for the Blind, now that I've read and so loved her first three, I must return to that one, her fourth. (Sadly, I just left it behind in Florence and I'm now in San Francisco for the summer. --insert unhappy face emoticon here.)Like Frame's second and

Starting on page one... "The Day is early with birds beginning and the wren in a cloud piping like the child in the poem, drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe..." this book knocked the wind out of me, and did so on more than one occasion...I couldn't put it down, but forced myself to so I could absorb it in small bites...most definitely a "read it again someday" book. My copy is dog-eared with favorite bits, in some cases, if the bits spilled over to the next page, I dog-eared the bottom corner to

Owls Do Cry is Janet Frames first full-length novel and was hailed as a critical success from the start. First published in 1957 and recently reissued in a 50th anniversary edition (on which this audio book is based), it is the tragic story of the Withers family, from a small town in New Zealand. The first chapters about the poverty-stricken childhood of Francie, Daphne, Toby and Chicks will bring a lump to the throat for most readers. The descriptions of how the dirty children are treated is

I started to read Owls Do Cry as research for my second novel as I cannot decide whether my protagonist is sent to prison or a Closed Psychiatric Unit. Well, it has helped me decide. It will be prison.Despite the painfulness of the subject matter what a delight the language is, especially when it is Daphnes story. It is the story of the Withers family: Francie, Toby, who is epileptic, Chicks the baby of the family and Daphne with her wonderful and damaging imagination. And what an extraordinary

Did I enjoy reading this? No, but that is because of the subject matter. This is a book about the mentally ill, the physically ill, aging and death. It records the darker side of human behavior; how humans behave toward the impoverished, the ill and the aging. The portrayal is uncomfortably accurate. This was Janet Frame's first novel and it has strong autobiographical elements. She was incorrectly institutionalized as a schizophrenic. She was institutionalized for a decade but avoided a

This is a very deliberate poetic & lyrical novel; unfortunately the interesting punctuation & italics is lost when read as an audiobook. However, overall, the effect is the same.This is a simple family drama- how will the family react to a death of an young adult child. All the characters are strong & believable. Father is laconic; mum only recognises one illness in the family - Toby's epilepsy; and the children grow up with various faults. No one is perfect in this book.My favourite

I've never read anything like this. It breaks all kind of "rules" - the verb tense shifts, unconventional punctuation and sentence structure, etc. There isn't really a main character. There's a main family, but I couldn't pick any one of its members as a protagonist. But it works. It works REALLY well.The story chronicles the lives of a poor family in a small town called Waimaru in New Zealand. There's plenty of dialog and action. The characters are clear and well-developed. But the sentences