'Asylum' keeps passion high

It is the gruesome story of passion and sexual obsession gone awry. Patrick McGrath's latest neo-gothic thriller, "Asylum," explores the power of love, lust, romance and intimacy. Tomorrow, McGrath is scheduled to read at Borders Books and Music, and will engross his readers in this reviting tale.

Growing up on the estates of a mental asylum in England, McGrath heard a great many stories that stuck in his head.

PREVIEW
	Patrick McGrath Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Borders

Through the years, he conjured up conclusions to these thrilling tales, and, alas, comes the sad story of Stella Raphael. Like so many today, Stella awakens one day to find herself suffocating in a stale and lonely marriage.

Passion and romance have long since dissipated, and her relationship with her husband Max more closely resembles a dull friendship than anything else. She longs for spontaneity and excitement. Max, a rather unimaginative man, has just been appointed head psychiatrist of a mental institution. He, along with Stella and their 10-year-old son, move to a comfortable house on the hospital grounds. Stella spends her days basking in her garden, dreaming of romance and passion.

Courtesy of Vintage Books Patrick McGrath will read tomorrow at Borders.

In mid-reverie, she comes across a man named Edgar. He is a patient in the hospital and as a result of his high status has earned the rights to garden their property.

Edgar is quite an interesting character because aside from the jealous delusions that forced him to kill and decapitate his wife, and his complete lack of remorse for his dreadful act, he shows no other signs of mental illness.

He is handsome and erotic, and has the power to lure in Stella without her even being aware. After watching him with longing, she eventually initiates an intense sexual relationship with him. She finds herself falling deeply in love with Edgar and the rebirth he has given her. Her emotions run so out of control that she leaves her husband and her son to pursue the relationship.

Although Stella's actions appear deplorable, and even with the knowledge that Edgar is a psychopath, the reader yearns for them to have a love fulfilled. While not necessarily approving of it, all can sympathize and understand the blind passion. Despite that Edgar is suspicious and has the potential to murder Stella at any moment, he is a lover and is, therefore, seen in somewhat of a positive light.

Stella helps Edgar escape from the hospital and runs away with him. From here, matters spiral out of control. Stella plunges head first into a deep depression and eventually into insanity.

Through his characters, McGrath portrays the thin line between sanity and insanity upon which so many walk. He starts with an identifiably normal person, such as Stella, and moves her step by step deeper into chaos. Somehow, each step is understandable. She slowly moves away from the center, yet the reader is left wondering where exactly the line is, and at what point she crossed over into the realm of insanity.

In doing this, McGrath said he intended for the reader to understand that "this could happen to any of us. Let's not be too quick to judge the mental ill or be too critical."

McGrath's choice of narrator is annoyingly brilliant. He writes from the perspective of a psychiatrist in the hospital, and his knowledge of Freudian psychology makes his character very believable.

The narrator's seemingly detached relations allow him to know just enough to tell an intriguing tale, yet is missing key pieces that ensure that the reader begs for more. The questionably reliable narrator, combined with the deep, passionate love affair produces a story that is impossible to put down. Not to mention that the steamy sex scenes are enough to grip everyone's attention.

There is something mysterious about Stella that makes all men in her life want to own her. Even the narrator cannot let her go.

The case is the same for the reader as well. Long after completing the novel, Stella looms in the mind, a constant reminder of how easily anyone can fall from grace. Perhaps this story is so intriguing because it is Stella who has the courage to live out the dream of so many. Fortunately, she is only a character in a fiction novel.

With his psychopathic and mentally ill characters, and unique intensity for writing, McGrath has been compared to such gothic authors as Edgar Allan Poe. In writing this story McGrath himself learned the great risk involved in pursuing a romantic, sexual adventure. Perhaps this is a warning not only for himself, but for all his readers as well.

04-03-98