At the time of writing this review, the book "When Rabbit Howls" has already been reviewed twenty-nine times by readers on the amazon.co.uk site. Twenty eight of those reviews award the book 5* 's - one courageous lone reviewer has caused outrage by calling the book "dull" and rating it with a lowly 1*.
My own opinion of the book falls somewhere in between the two extremes. It is one of the most gut-wrenching and heartfelt books that I have ever read, yet at times I found it unnecessarily complex. Having written that last statement, I feel foolish. What did I expect from a book that is written by 92 different authors all living within one body?
"When Rabbit Howls" is a blunt, factual account of Multiple Personality Disorder. Truddi Chase was terribly sexually abused as a child and 'coped' with her ordeal by dissociating. The 'real' Truddi died, aged two, and was replaced within her body by a number of different personalities each of whom had a specific function in protecting first the child, then the adult, from the horrific memories of unspeakable acts.
"The Troops", as the different personalities are collectively known, are each separate entities living within Truddi's body, unbeknown to Truddi herself. They have names like "The Outrider", "The Front Runner", "Black Katherine", "Lambchop", "Twelve" and "The Irishman". With each entity fulfilling a separate purpose, Truddi is totally unaware of their existence, even as she marries, produces a child and has a successful career.
Depending on which personality is currently at the forefront, Truddi's every waking minute is fragmented. She feels little emotion apart from fear and is seemingly incapable of loving and caring for anyone. Worse, she has no memory of her childhood and is even unsure whether or not she eventually killed the stepfather responsible for her sexual abuse.
The memories are only gradually retrieved when Truddi consults a therapist who recognises her disorder and encourages her to write. This, courtesy of "The Troops", is Truddi's story.
And it is a unique story of Multiple Personality Disorder, written honestly by someone with experience of the condition. (Or should that be 'someones'?) It is both shocking and compelling. There is a foreword and an epilogue by Robert A Phillips, the therapist treating Truddi, that helps to explain the condition in layman's terms. Since Phillips has never previously seen a case of MPD as extensive as Truddi's, it is a voyage of discovery for all parties, one that has an unexpected ending.
I found "When Rabbit Howls" a fascinating read yet, at the same time, there were occasions when it was difficult to follow the unfolding events. Reading it required a lot of mental effort on my part, although that effort was far from wasted. However, having read "Sybil" by Flora Rheta-Schreiber, itself the story of a woman who had sixteen multiple personalities, I felt that "Sybil" gave me a better understanding of this distressing condition and its ramifications than "When Rabbit Howls".
Thus I would recommend "When Rabbit Howls" but would also suggest reading "Sybil" first.
Publisher:Jove
ISBN: 0 515 10329 2
Price: £4.31 / $6.99 p/b
Date Reviewed: February 2003
My Rating: 3.5/5
