The step from Kilkalla to Treelake was not far in actual physical distance, but for Harry White it meant spanning six years of obscured, formless oblivion, not necessarily to resume old relationships, but at least to take the reins of living, of being a man again. He had married Gwen, but he had loved her sister Julia; neither of them, each for her own reasons, was anxious to have him back. Gwen was doing very well in managing his farm with systematic and unscrupulous profit to herself; while Julia, widowed no and a journalist to support herself and her daughter, had a morbid fear of anyone who had been near a mental home. And Kilkalla, where Harry had spent those six long years, was a mental home.
Dr Maxon, the Superintendant, had taken an active and friendly interest in Harry, and it was he who advised him to visit Julia. He did not, however, anticipate the outcome. Harry was rescued from Julia's near-murderous attack by Guinevere Martin, her tenant who was a spinster - though not by any means resigned to it - and a plain practical businesswoman. Living with her and experiencing the staunch friendship of Jimmy Carlyon, who had been Julia's lover, it might have seemed that Harry's life could run normally. But the rebuffs he suffered led him back to Dr Maxon, through whose skilled hands he finally came to know and acknowledge himself.
This is an intensely compassionate and fascinating study in mental distress and the prejudices of people towards those who suffer. George Turner, one of Australia's finest novelists, in revealing how fine is the line drawn between lunacy and hysterical or thoughtless sanity, handles this controversial subject with intelligence and sensitivity.
