The Faces

This autobiographical novel chronicles Lise's bout with psychosis - - hallucinations of faces, paranoid delusions and psychiatric hospitalization. Like the author, Lise is a poet, haunted by her sensual housekeeper, Gitte. The descriptions of madness are realistically and aesthetically rendered, capturing the fear, isolation and intricacy of psychotic illness. This is an incredible book. The reader gains a sense of Lise from the inside looking out as well as the outside looking in. We see her environment and understand the illness and its relation to the rational world. Only someone who had experienced this could have written this book. While my heart went out to Ditlevsen in her pain and suffering, her gift to the reader is immense. This is a beautiful and literary book.