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Gertrude's Cupboard
E.J. Cockey
Review by Alyce Wilson
Based on the title and the jacket blurb about Gertrude's Cupboard:
Recapturing Minds Stolen by Disease, one would expect it to be about
Gertrude, an elderly woman facing senility and her relationship with
the author, who worked with her through art therapy. However, the book
is about anything but that. It's primarily about the personal life of
the author at roughly the same time she took care of Gertrude, with
few references to Gertrude.
The title refers to a chest of drawers in Gertrude's room, jammed full
of souvenirs of her life. But except for one scene where E.J. snoops
into a photo album while Gertrude is out of the room, the contents of
that cupboard remain a mystery.
In fact, it seems as if E.J. is fairly unconcerned about her client,
and she regards her other art therapy clients, in nursing homes, the
same way. While she describes some of her sessions in detail, none of
them serve to illustrate anything that would show what good the art
therapy does for them, other than an excuse to socialize.
The book jumps all over in time and place. Even though she includes
dates at the beginning of these short chapters, it doesn't help comprehension.
Numerous characters are introduced, even though the book is barely over
100 pages long, most of whom are completely dispensable.
The only characters she spends any time discussing are those who are
close to her personally, such as her son, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia,
and the man who would become her second husband.
She even confesses a couple times that she only goes to her therapy
job because she needs the money. This doesn't help endear her to the
reader. Frankly, the book doesn't deliver on its promises at all. It
seems like yet another way for her to try to capitalize on these old
people's misery, in this case by selling a book.
The threads of a good story were there, but E.J.'s heart doesn't seem
to be in it. If she had cared enough about her client to structure the
book around her, the whole book would have been stronger.
E.J. Cockey and Co., 2005: ISBN 0-9758869-1-6
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