Two years out of college, Bia Fernandes leaves a dead-end job to work and live in a psychiatric halfway house, where she learns more than she expects from its ex-patients — just as the Watergate scandal in the U.S. comes to a head in 1974.
Swanson House is a derelict mansion that will be torn down for a highway coming through a dying mill town in Massachusetts. The state, which is closing its mental hospitals, hires inexperienced staff like Bia to help people make the transition. But where others have failed, Bia has it in her to help what the staff member she replaces called dented cans. She tries to see the good in them.
Among the residents are: Lane, who compiles his observations in small notebooks with titles like Twisted People; Angie, who claims to have been a groupie to rock stars; Jerry, the ultra-hip ex-carny; Carole, who says doctors stole her baby; and Alice, who falls asleep mid-sentence. The residents work menial jobs, take meds, and interact like family. The three other staff members at Swanson have their own problems, especially one who gets too close to the people they are supposed to help.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Swanson House is a derelict mansion that will be torn down for a highway coming through a dying mill town in Massachusetts. The state, which is closing its mental hospitals, hires inexperienced staff like Bia to help people make the transition. But where others have failed, Bia has it in her to help what the staff member she replaces called dented cans. She tries to see the good in them.
Among the residents are: Lane, who compiles his observations in small notebooks with titles like Twisted People; Angie, who claims to have been a groupie to rock stars; Jerry, the ultra-hip ex-carny; Carole, who says doctors stole her baby; and Alice, who falls asleep mid-sentence. The residents work menial jobs, take meds, and interact like family. The three other staff members at Swanson have their own problems, especially one who gets too close to the people they are supposed to help.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Used availability for Joan Livingston's The Swanson Shuffle