Buch, Englisch, 277 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm
Reihe: Cultures of Childhood
A Memoir
Buch, Englisch, 277 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm
Reihe: Cultures of Childhood
ISBN: 978-1-4968-4276-3
Verlag: University Press of Mississippi
Now closed, the preventorium housed over three thousand children, including author Susan Annah Currie. In this intimate memoir, Currie details her fifteen-month stay at the preventorium. From her arrival in May 1959 at six years old, Currie vividly explores the unique and isolating world that she and children across the country experienced. Her exacting routine, dictated by the nurses and doctors who now acted as her parents, erased the distinction between patients and created both a sense of community among the children and a deep sense of loneliness. From walking silently single file through the cold, narrow halls of the hospital to nurses recording every detail of their bathroom habits to extremely limited visitation from family, Currie’s time at the preventorium changed her and those around her, leaving an indelible mark even after their return home.
While many of the records from the preventorium have been lost, Currie’s memoir opens to readers a lost history largely forgotten. Told in evocative prose, The Preventorium explores Currie’s personal trials, both in the hospital and in the echoes of her experiences into adulthood.