Palace of Wisdom

• Utgivningsdatum: 2026-10-16
• Mått: 129 x 198 x 18 mm
• Vikt: 200 g
• Format: Häftad
• Språk: Engelska
• Antal sidor: 240
• Förlag: Hawkwood Books
• ISBN: 9781919474526

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John O’Donoghue is the author of Brunch Poems (WaterlooPress, 2009) and Fools & Mad (Waterloo Press, 2014); the memoir Sectioned:A Life Interrupted (John Murray, 2009); and the short story collections TheKing From Over The Water (The Wild Geese Press, 2019) and The Servants(Tartarus Press). Sectioned was awarded Mind Book of the Year 2010, and he haswon a number of other awards for his writing, including The Irish Post ListowelWriters Week Prize. He lives in Brighton.

"A fine /and memorable novel. Its two famous,incarcerated poets call across the years to each other and to us a plangentsong of loss, justice, and recovery." Adam Foulds"John O'Donoghue eavesdrops on the voices of those no longersure who or when they are, echoing down the asylum centuries. An arresting workof commendable insight and empathy from a writer of impressive ability andambition. A madhouse seance and a divinatory triumph." Alan Moore"The powerful story of two famous poets confined to the samemental institution a century or more apart. Moving, disturbing, insightful." Blake Morrison"Here is a generous opening of self to the angels ofhistory. Through genetic possession by conjoined but divided poets, JohnO'Donoghue charts the bitter geography of incarceration. His swift-movingnarrative sources and ventriloquises the subtle confessions of Northampton'sembedded ghosts. A crafted and seductive performance. Highly recommended." Iain SinclairI came to The Palace of Wisdom with little knowledgeof the poets Robert Lowell and  John Clare, whose dual narratives comprisethis novel. I resisted the temptation to go to my anthologies or Wikipedia tocheck their life stories and work, and to read the novel as any reader might –that is, as a poetry-adjacent historical thriller. What is known is that JohnClare, the ‘peasant poet’, was an inmate of the Northampton Lunatic Asylum, hisnarrative beginning in 1842. The novel places Lowell in the same institutionfor a short period in 1976 (although by then it has been renamed St Andrew’s).O’Donoghue inhabits each poet’s voice in alternatingchapters. The voices are convincing and the way the two stories weave togetherskilful and compelling. It is not only the differing use of language from thetwo eras that stand out, but also that Clare’s chapters are written entirelywithout punctuation. The reason becomes apparent in a later chapter: ‘I insiston an end of grammar and punctuation for language cannot be enclosed just asthe same as the commons and poor lunaticks cannot be enclosed’ (p.143).Many an artist has spent time in psychiatric institutionsand, though the two timelines are marked by different attitudes to treatment ofthe mentally ill, there are many parallels; not least the presence ofattendants whose motives for working with vulnerable people are far frombenevolent. To expand on this without spoilers is difficult, but in eachtimeline there are characters with similar motives (and, indeed, the samenames) and there are also similarly suspicious deaths. The power and effects ofinstitutions on both the inmates and those who guard them is evident. Rapes andassaults go unreported, the patients holding little power, the brutality of theperpetrators allowed to continue.The heart of this novel is a murder mystery in which thesetting is all important. Lowell’s stay in St Andrews is brief, with the actiontaking place alongside the ‘atmosphere of indolence only asylums can produce,the torpor of the bored, the medicated, the depressed.’ (Lowell’s narrative,p.113).  Clare, by contrast, spends decades of his life in the asylum, infact until his death. Lowell’s days include a poetry group and group therapy.Lowell is called ‘Professor’ by the staff. Clare, however, is patronised by avisitor who describes his poetry as ‘quite charming I am glad you can amuseyourself  by writing’. Clare’s response is ‘she had as little conceptionof the role of poetry in my life than had any of the attendants in this pot ofmisery’ (p.200).One wonders whether the different social standings of thetwo poets has a bearing on their treatment. Lowell mentions previous admissionsto an institution in the States. His manic episodes are regarded as temporary,and in between he returns to his life as an academic. Clare, from more humbleorigins, is considered a permanent case for treatment. He has mixed with thegreat and the good but is no more a part of their world than he is of the worldhe was born into. His connections and standing do not allow him to return tothe outside world. Does this reflect the attitudes of the time or the trappingsof his class? In either case, his only respite is during a failed attempt toescape, and another afternoon of freedom where he slips away to post a letterto the Alleged Lunatics Friends Society to petition for his release. During thelatter episode, Clare enjoys a trip to the pub The Bantam Cock, and some timein his beloved natural world.The liminal spaces between dreams, hallucinations, andreality fog the narratives. Lowell speaks of ‘John Clare haunting me in thehospital,’ (p.196) while Clare’s thoughts and memories of mixing with thearistocratic literati, and of formerly being a prize fighter, leave the readerunclear of which of these is real or delusional. Clare, at one stage, refers tothese beliefs as ‘play acting’.To further cloud the reader’s perceptions, there is not onlythe filter of the mentally disturbed narrators, but the suggestion of thesupernatural at work. Lowell appears to be the more reliable narrator, but hehas dreams and visions of Clare’s world and indeed sees the figure of Clarehimself.O’Donoghue is a fine poet as well as a novelist. Hisinhabitation of Lowell and Clare extends to producing poems in their style atthe end of the novel, each purporting to be written during their stays in theasylum.  This reviewer has read, indeedreviewed, some of O’Donoghue’s previous books, including his memoir Sectioned:A Life Interrupted. O’Donoghue’s knowledge of mental health institutions isfrom personal experience, the earliest of which was during the same period asLowell’s supposed incarceration at St Andrews. The Palace of Wisdom is afine novel, not only as a murder mystery but also as tribute to the lives ofthe two poets, and an informed account of lives within the mental healthsystem.Maria C. McCarthy London Grip Poetry. Maria is the author of Learning to beIrish

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