The Jagged Years of Ruthie J. (Ekstasis Editions)

Winnipeg 1963. Eighteen year-old psychology student Ruthie J. is the bane of her traditional Jewish family. Briefly married, she drinks, swears, has casual sex and mixes with questionable characters, arguing incessantly with her father. When a bizarre car accident lands her in court, the confused teen is sent for testing and diagnosed with epilepsy – then considered a mental illness.

Against her wishes, Ruthie’s family admits her to a posh Maryland mental hospital, Chestnut Lodge of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden fame, where she is put at the mercy of a sadistic psychiatrist. The Jagged Years of Ruthie J. is the story of the friendship and love of Ruthie’s fellow patients and the tale of how, with the help of a remarkable therapist, Ruthie J. managed to free herself, discover her true sexual orientation and persevere in her dream to become a physician.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dr. Ruth Simkin practiced family medicine for several decades and subsequently became a specialist in palliative care. She has studied all over the world and is the author of medical articles on women’s health as well as Like an Orange on a Seder Plate, a feminist Passover Haggadah. Retired from medicine, she now lives and writes in Victoria, BC.