Fb2 Peripheral View ePub

Peripheral View

by Rita Kuehn

Langdon Street press

[...] Street press.com

Pearl lives in an institution and has for years. She gets seizures, but none of the medicine helps so she ditches them or cuts them in half. She makes an escape attempt to meet her boyfriend, Sonny, but just as she almost makes it she throws a seizure and the nurse and warden of the hospital take her back to bed. They wonder why she's fully dressed in the middle of the night. While the rest of the residents line up to board a bus for their day trip to work, a black Lincoln town car pulls up and the chauffeur, Anton, opens the door to let Pearl inside.

Pearls thoughts ramble through her mind, thinking of how the situation she is in came to pass. Her and her friend Amelia were walking behind her house on its lovely grounds, enjoying themselves as young teenage girls do. When Pearl has her first seizure, her mother, hearing her daughter's friend scream, runs to her and holds her down until the seizure passes. Neither mother nor daughter knew what had happened. Her parents hold out hope, but the doctors tests point to that dreaded word -- epilepsy, a disease considered in the same family as insanity. And Pearls dreams of a happy future are shattered.

She spends her life in Glory Heights, institutionalized by her own sister. Years later, Pearl sends a letter to Susan, a State Senator, who at 54 would be happy if she never heard from her sister Pearl again. Their parents are dead now and Pearl is her responsibility -- and now Pearl writes her saying she wants to marry Sonny. Pearl, at 52, knows no life outside the mental institution and Susan plans to keep it that way. She's been jealous of Pearl and her good-natured manner, her beauty and her place in their parent's hearts. Her epilepsy turns Susan's jealousy into pure hatred.

Pearl's letter to her sister turns out to be a big mistake. Susan immediately has Sonny removed from the factory where Pearl and he work: also forbidding Sonny's visits to Glory Heights. Pearl is resilient and determined that her and Sonny will be together one way or another. Her caseworker, Matthew, in cahoots with her nurse, Charlotte, have a few tricks up their sleeves to give Pearl the happiness she deserves. Matthew finds a way to get Jordana, Pearl's niece, to help. Susan never told Pearl or Jordana of their existence.

Sensual sparks fly between Jordana and Matthew as they discuss Pearl's problems and possible solutions. Jordana has a poor relationship with her mother and never doubts that she will stoop to lock away her own sister for good--and keep her public constituents from knowing that she exists.

Author Rita Kuehn writes a poignant story tinged with humor about the appalling lives of disabled patients from the 40s through the 60s. She shows the resiliency of one woman who refuses to tolerate it. The bittersweet ending of Peripheral View will give readers both pleasure and food for thought.

Reviewer: Micki Peluso, writer, journalist, and author of . . . And the Whippoorwill Sang

Pearl Witherby, fifty-two years old, with epilepsy, aspires to love, family and home, pretty clothes and shoes and especially nylons. After the death of her parents, Joseph and Cecelia, Pearl's sister, Senator Susan Seymour committed Pearl to Glory Heights Health Care Facility.

Pearl met Sonny Capshaw, also mentally challenged, who works at Brambles, Brads and Bolts. Pearl and Sonny fall in love and wish to marry. Like most similar folks, they have normal emotions and desires.

Nurse Charlotte and social worker Matthew Kincaid, recognize Pearl's intelligence. The warden, Daris McFinley administrator of the facility, accepts bribes from Senator Susan and her assistant Nick, to keep Pearl from doing anything independent. Another nurse obeys McFinley, overdoses Pearl and nearly kills her.

Senator Susan is self-centered and immoral and has no concept of her sister's abilities, life or wishes. Will Pearl ever escape and find happiness? Will her sister discover her warped viewpoint and change? A good story with a worthwhile theme.

Rita - what a wonderful story you have written. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book from the first page to the final. In fact I needed to complete reading it last night so I could write this review today.

Your writing placed me, as the reader walking along in the shoes of your characters, especially Pearl (Aunt Pearl) to some. Her battle with wanting to marry her sweetheart Sonny - held me intrigued on how they would ever marry. However adversary won over their ordeal.

As a writer, I learnt much from your style of writing. Tell a story and have a tissue box handy for with this book I sobbed and lucky I clicked on my kindle to the next page without wetting too much of the screen.

You should be congratulated on writing a wonderful and warm story. Thank you for making this reader a happy little vegemite (Australian Term - to show 'happy').

Pat Ritter

Reading Peripheral View was a joy to read.

This lovely story is about a woman with epilepsy but it could just as easily be about anyone with a disease that causes others to view them as different. It touched my heart right from the start.

Pearl is a worman in love who will stop at nothing to keep her from seeing her man. Who can't relate to that? She does have many obstacles in her way including a sister she has no relationship with but who is determined to keep Pearl hidden from the public. Thankfully, Pearl also has friends who see beyond her disease. Matthew, her social worker and Charlotte, her nurse, fight to help her to realize her dream.

This is a believeable story about the power of love, friendships and determination.

Thank you Rita Kuehn, I look forward to reading more of your work, hopefully, soon.

Peripheral View is a touching story about love on many levels.
Pearl and Sonny fight for more than their romantic relationship. They fight for independence and respect. I was not only touched by their love and upset by the injustice they had to endure, but was also compelled to look deep inside. If I hadn't had the chance to see the world through their eyes, how would I have reacted? Rita Kuehn did a wonderful job letting the reader walk in Pearl's and Sonny's shoes for a while.
Love, respect and self-respect is what all characters in this story have to figure out for themselves. This beautiful story offers romance, suspense and food for thought.

Peripheral View puzzled me, particularly the first several pages, which failed to indicate what kind of a story this would be. Nevertheless, persisting past that, I found the story quite engrossing, particularly its gently revealed subject matter--what life is like for those with epilepsy. A story of a courageous woman overcoming the prejudice surrounding her diagnosis, squeezing those small joys out of life that the rest of us take for granted.