Rosen Trevithick

Rosen Trevithick's last book was a funny one.  This is much more thoughtful and serious in some ways but still has that spark of humour that has me making highlights.

The Ice Marathon

Amazon.com  Ice Marathon

My review -

This is the story of Emma, a young woman of 30-ish, who suffers from bi-polar disorder but who manages it with medication.  She is set up with a date by her flatmate and the two of them don’t get on.  The evening (or early next morning) ends with a brutal but mutual sex act which results in her pregnancy.  To save the baby from harm, Emma has to give up her lithium which keeps the disorder at bay.  Emma and Simon get together again in an off and on way and I really found I wanted to know what happened. 

To me, the clever part of this story is that it is a first person narration by Emma and we see her bipolar disorder begin to creep up on her.  Because she is telling us about it, we can see her rationale for her over-excited, hysterical behaviour, all the reasoning behind her fear and despair.  We know where things are heading before she does.  If this were described in the third person we’d only see the results, not the reasoning.  This aspect is extremely well done.  I also found some of the writing very funny – even in desperate situations, Rosen Trevithick can pull a funny out and I found myself highlighting a phrase or two that made me giggle.

There’s an exciting and ultimately satisfying ending to this story.  Very enjoyable.