Breaking Out of Bedlam (2010) by Leslie Larsen

 1,001 Novels: A Library of Ameri ca

Breaking Out of Bedlam (2010)

by Leslie Larsen

Joplin, Missouri

Missouri: 5/11

   Breaking Out of Bedlam is a 1,001 Novels: A Library of American mainstay, about a 300 pound, 82-year-old mother of three who has just been confined to an assisted living facility by her "loving" children.  Surprisingly, the narrative structure takes the form of narrator Nora Sledge deciding to tell her story by writing in a journal.  Author Larsen thus avoids the central dilemma of the entire 1,001 Novels project: How to write an interesting book about a character or characters with little or no formal education and never go anywhere or do anything.   As Sledge herself makes perfectly clear, she fits this description.  It's unclear if she has ever read a book.  But she is a lively and engaging narrator, and the low-stakes plot about assisted living shenanigans kept me engaged.

  The 1,001 Novels project has this book mapped but it is hard to say why.  The nursing home where 100% of the action takes place is in suburban San Diego- it sounded like the Clairemont Mesa area to me.  The written flashbacks to Sledge's past live must be happening in or around Joplin, Missouri though Sledge doesn't tell us much about the place other than her own story- getting pregnant as a teenager and then tricking her husband into marrying her to give the illegitimate child a home.