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Summary and Reviews of Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

Blue Asylum

A Novel

by Kathy Hepinstall
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
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  • First Published:
  • Apr 10, 2012, 288 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 2013, 288 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

In the midst of the American Civil War, a southern plantation owner's wife is arrested by her husband and declared insane for interfering with his slaves. She is sent to an island mental asylum to come to terms with her wrongdoing, but instead finds love and escape with a war-haunted Confederate soldier.

Amid the mayhem of the Civil War, Virginia plantation wife Iris Dunleavy is put on trial and convicted of madness. It is the only reasonable explanation the court can see for her willful behavior, so she is sent away to Sanibel Asylum to be restored to a good, compliant woman. Iris knows, though, that her husband is the true criminal; she is no lunatic, only guilty of disagreeing with him on notions of justice, cruelty, and property.

On this remote Florida island, cut off by swamps and seas and military blockades, Iris meets a wonderful collection of residents - some seemingly sane, some wrongly convinced they are crazy, some charmingly odd, some dangerously unstable. Which of these is Ambrose Weller, the war-haunted Confederate soldier whose memories terrorize him into wild fits that can only be calmed by the color blue, but whose gentleness and dark eyes beckon to Iris.

The institution calls itself modern, but Iris is skeptical of its methods, particularly the dreaded "water treatment." She must escape, but she has found new hope and love with Ambrose. Can she take him with her? If they make it out, will the war have left anything for them to make a life from, back home?

Blue Asylum is a vibrant, beautifully-imagined, absorbing story of the lines we all cross between sanity and madness. It is also the tale of a spirited woman, a wounded soldier, their impossible love, and the undeniable call of freedom.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Juxtaposing the Civil War with Iris's struggles as a woman in the South invites comparison of the two. Battle lines are clearly drawn in Blue Asylum - blue versus gray/men versus women - but Hepinstall is careful not to render judgment of guilt or innocence for any of the characters. Instead she reveals their personalities slowly in a series of flashbacks, and leaves the readers to judge for themselves. The result is not the grist of fairy tale love stories but rather the portrayal of a complex relationship...continued

Full Review (584 words)

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(Reviewed by Mark James).

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Beyond the Book



A History of Sanibel Island

In Kathy Hepinstall's Civil War-era novel, Blue Asylum, Iris Dunleavy is sent to live in the Sanibel Asylum for Lunatics on Sanibel Island, Florida for the "act of defying [her] husband." Though the area is now considered a mecca for lovers of sea shells (SanibelHistory.org estimates that the resident population of about 6000 swells by 20,000 - 30,000 people per week during peak shelling season), it wasn't always such a relaxed place.

It is said that Sanibel Island formed about six thousand years ago. According to the Sanibel Captiva Chamber of Commerce, the process was the result of sediment rising from the sea "after being shaped by centuries of storm activity."

map of Calusa territory Dating back 2,500 years, the main inhabitats of the island were ...

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Read-Alikes

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