cover image The More You Ignore Me

The More You Ignore Me

Jo Brand. Harper, 13.99 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-06-197358-1

Brand’s (It’s Different for Girls) latest lacks focus as she alternates between the voices of a devoted husband, Keith, his schizophrenic wife, Gina, and their daughter, Alice. The story, set in a small English town, is best served when Alice dispels her concerns about the psychiatric illness that has left her mother, Gina, in a medicated fog throughout most of Alice’s young life. Alice’s voice is the most poignant and fleshed out, and she lends a certain charm to the tale, as does the clever twist of Alice’s obsession with musician Morrissey, who first hit the music charts with his band the Smiths in the early ’80s when Alice was a young teen. Her somber existence is mimicked in his music, which gives a solid sense of the period and Alice’s thoughts. Alice’s path provides an interesting insight into how a child deals with a parent’s mental illness, but the book as a whole misses the mark, pulling in too many directions. And the introduction of Gina’s family, an uneducated country bumpkin clan, only adds to the confusion. (June)