Canberra Times
Rachel's Holiday is an amusing but sobering book that deals with drug addiction and institutionalisation.
Mainly set in a rehabilitation centre in Ireland, though also involving background scenes of Rachel's wild life in New York, the novel concentrates on the denial and fantasies of Rachel who has to finally accommodate the reality of herself and her surroundings.
Her hard-won understanding is via confronting group therapy as well as daily interaction, not always positive, with co-patients and mental health professionals. Soundly researched, the novel overflows with Rachel's anger, tears and irrepressible wit. She's so likeable that one fervently hopes that her new-found responsibility and sense of being loved will endure.
Publication: Canberra Times (Australia)
Journalist: Veronica Sen
Date: 5/4/98