Matt McAvoy Book Review

Full disclosure is necessary here: I helped Charles quite extensively with editing and structural feedback for his book.  However, the content itself and the finished product are all products of his obsessively hard work and tremendous body of life’s work.  The result is a phenomenal achievement; this is not just a book, it is a project, a study into the human psyche, how personalities overlap and the influence they have on each other through their own personal stories.  The Gentling of Hanna Johansen is a clever, intricately woven narrative about trauma, hope, despair and ultimately the power of love, trust and belief in others.  Most of this book’s small cast of characters have experienced trauma or depression, with issues including bereavement, active combat, sexual abuse, abandonment and survivor’s guilt, yet despite these dark themes, a ray of light shines through the book, though while some are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this ray, it comes too late or too dim for others.

I believe much of the tale is based on a true story, and I assume, though don’t know, that Charles has based the key supporting character in Hanna’s journey – her grandfather (Papa) Andy – on himself.  They certainly share the same academic credentials and immense breadth of knowledge in the fields of psychiatry and psychology.  Working at the highest levels of education, Andy offers a professional overview, along with fellow professional Alexa, of the personal interactions which will either make or break Hanna.  But in some ways, true story or not, Hanna is merely a metaphor for the toxic contagion of mental illness, which is growing to pandemic levels; indeed, the book frequently refers to a post-Vietnam War mental health crisis, and looking at the world now it is difficult to argue with this.  But the advent of social media, and the globally-reaching influence of peer pressure, as fuel for increasingly catastrophic rhetoric in the development of young people, is looking increasingly likely to have laser-focused the long foreseen crisis on a much later generation – maybe we resisted long enough to kick the can down the road, but no one can resist the immense phenomenon of the instant and global propaganda era.  Indeed, Hanna herself doesn’t really appear – except very briefly in the prologue – until about a quarter of the way through the book, indicating that her story is just a choice for how the overall message is imparted; after all, there are many young girls like Hanna.  What a tremendously relevant way to do so.

The Gentling of Hanna Johansen is superlative.  It is as good and as qualified a study into the intertwining influence of conflicting and complementary mental health factors as you will read.  A satisfying, utterly comprehensive sum of all its parts – human, professional, academic and emotional.  You will be very unlikely to read a better book this year – in any genre.  And lucky to read such a good, narrative-format, semi-fictionalized mental health study, ever.