Two Books and a TV Movie

A Selection for My Sister’s Book Club

This is an adventure story centered on a woman much older than the usual heroine of a novel. When a persecuted (or at least mistreated) character takes charge of her life and gets even with her tormentors, it’s a fun read. When the character is 69 years old and her family have tried to see that she has a premature end, at least as a drugged resident of a nursing home — if not an actual untimely death  — it’s even more satisfying. I appreciate the creation of this exceptional character who defeats the forces that are trying to betray her, to get their greedy hands on her money (inherited from her recently deceased husband) and destroy her independence. Here’s the narrator’s summary of the first half of What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr (published 2019) —

“She’s lost her husband. She’s been locked away in an Alzheimer’s ward. She’s had the flu. She’s been in a brawl with a big nurse. She has slithered beneath a planting of hostas like a cottonmouth, to watch for a person who might come to kill her. Drugs she doesn’t even know the names of still enjoy half-lives in her tissues. Prescriptions she’s been on for years have been scrubbed from her system by time and illness. Her brain floats in a chemical soup concocted by evil toddlers in a devil’s pharmacy.” (p. 165)

And a kind of meditation on plot —

“What is it about human beings that so loves violence? Gladiators, football, war, hunting, cockfighting, books and television and movies filled with bombs, guns, and gigantic beasts of various origins all wreaking the most horrific havoc: people love it.” (p. 239)

The adventures of Rose — as she became an escapee from the clutches of the evil nurse named Karen — is kind of zany, with escape episodes on a rooftop, petty revenge on the nasty and unlikeable tormentors. You can’t avoid loving an all around settling of scores with unsympathetic people, though never really ugly violence. 

As well, you can’t resist the wisdom at the very end that Rose imparts to her granddaughter Mel. It was Mel who was complicit in her effort to escape from the “facility.”

“Do you think Granddad will come back?” Mel asks softly. “I do,” Rose says. “You’ll have to become a vegetarian,” Mel says, “so you won’t accidentally eat him.” “It’s not like he’ll come back as a pig or a chicken.” Rose spreads her arms out. “He’ll be, you know … one with everything.” “Granddad is coming back as a hot dog?”  (p. 287)

To be more complete, here is the Kirkus Review of the book:

There’s a lot of stuff Rose Dennis doesn’t know. She doesn’t know when and how she got out of Longwood or when and how she arrived there in the first place. She’s surprised and pained when people remind her that although she grew up in New Orleans, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, with Harley, her husband of 15 years, and that he’s died. At one point she’s not even sure whether she’s 68 years old or 103. After a pair of orderlies hustle her back to Longwood, however, Rose resolves that it’s the medications she’s being fed that are sapping her powers of mind and will and vows to stop taking them and escape again, this time for keeps. Fortunately, her second attempt takes her to the home of Melanie Dennis, Harley’s levelheaded, resourceful 13-year-old granddaughter, who’s more than ready to do whatever it takes to keep Gigi, as she calls Rose, two steps ahead of her pursuers. Unfortunately, one of those pursuers, a shadowy man armed with a knife, breaks into the old house where Rose is hiding out and tries to kill her. More adventures follow, some of them involving Rose’s hermitlike sister, Marion Bliss, who offers all the help a life spent online allows, some involving Karen Black, the hapless Longwood nurse Rose gets the better of on three separate occasions. It’s both a nuisance and a personal triumph when the media get hold of Rose’s story and label her “Gun Granny.” (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nevada-barr/what-rose-forgot/)

Another Story of an Asylum 

What Rose Forgot reminds me a little of another novel set in a facility like this one, though One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (published in 1962) is in fact in an actual insane asylum, not just a place for inconvenient elders with coveted money. Ken Kesey’s character Big Nurse is totally unforgettable: also as a character in the film. But Nevada Barr’s Karen — at least once called “a big nurse” —  is pretty memorable as well.

Here is a summary of the plot of Kesey’s book: “Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind, including a critique of psychiatry and a tribute to individualistic principles.” (source: Wikipedia)

I don’t think that Nevada Barr is anywhere near as good as Ken Kesey. However, I think the comparison is deserved between the books. While I didn’t pick up any overt references to Kesey in What Rose Forgot I think it’s fair to make the connection. 

Published AND Purchased September 15

Brand new: the book I am reading next;
We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman. Review coming soon!

A Sweet and Sentimental Movie (But OK)

I read the book in March, 2025. The movie did a good job with the story, I think.

Blog post © 2026 mae sander