Description

A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella. James Joyce, Ulysses
Radical and uncompromising, Umbrella is a tour de force from one of England s most acclaimed contemporary writers, and Self s most ambitious novel to date. Moving between Edwardian London and a suburban mental hospital in 1971, Umbrella exposes the twentieth century s technological searchlight as refracted through the dark glass of a long term mental institution. While making his first tours of the hospital at which he has just begun working, maverick psychiatrist Zachary Busner notices that many of the patients exhibit a strange physical tic: rapid, precise movements that they repeat over and over. One of these patients is Audrey Dearth, an elderly woman born in the slums of West London in 1890. Audrey s memories of a bygone Edwardian London, her lovers, involvement with early feminist and socialist movements, and, in particular, her time working in an umbrella shop, alternate with Busner s attempts to treat her condition and bring light to her clouded world. Busner s investigations into Audrey s illness lead to discoveries about her family that are shocking and tragic.