cover image Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

Norah Vincent. Blackstone Audiobooks, $70 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-4332-3561-0

In narrating Vincent's infiltration (and exposé) of three mental health institutions, Tavia Gilbert, the very versatile performer of both children's and adult audios, strikes all the right notes. She neutrally notes the author's observations of the various environs and delivers an outraged denunciation of the subhuman living conditions and sympathy for the hapless inmates, who, unlike Vincent, rarely if ever escape the system. Gilbert's tone is firm and brisk; a perfect vessel for the depressing litany of indignities to which the mentally ill are subjected. The skillful narration will help even the queasy wend their way to the end of this important work. A Viking hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 29). (Jan.)