Book Review: Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
In all failed relationships there is a point that passes unnoticed at the time, which can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park.
Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with a charismatic, married doctor.
One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen’s home. A mute, thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard down to his waist, has been discovered along with his elderly aunt. It is clear he has been shut up in the house for decades, but when it emerges that William is a talented artist, Helen is determined to discover his story.
Shy Creatures is a life-affirming novel about all the different ways we can be confined, how ordinary lives are built of delicate layers of experience, the joy of freedom and the transformative power of kindness.
My Thoughts:This glorious novel has kept me in good company over the last few days as I’ve wallowed around in misery with a summer flu.
Shy Creatures is my favourite sort of novel, quietly impactful with its deeply explored themes, a story that takes its time to gently unfold and establish, peopled with richly devoloped characters that are flawed, relatable, and worthy of becoming invested in.
Set in the mid 1960s, the story orbits around a psychiatric facility and is inspired by the true story of a man who was discovered within his home, hidden for decades and then transferred to the nearby facility for psychiatric evaluation. Clare Chambers has given this real-life case an imagined backstory and a hopeful future. She tells William’s story in pieces, travelling back through time, slowly revealing his life in hiding and the eventual reasons for why he was hidden away.
Other characters have their own stories within this story, but the main one is Helen, an art therapist working within the psychiatric facility, who discovers William’s talent for drawing and nurtures this to assist in discovering his story and to facilitate his healing. Helen is a gorgeous character, by no means a saint, but indeed a beautiful soul.
I appreciated the insight into mental health care that was at a turning point at this time in history, in some places becoming more holistic and community based instead of clinical and institutional. There was significant research done on this aspect of the story, as evidenced in the final pages of the book.
Shy Creatures really was a joy to read – listen to – and while it was not without moments of deep sadness, it was, ultimately, a hopeful story about human connection and community. I absolutely adored it.
