Telegraph review of Guy Kennaway's book

[SJ]

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From psoriasis to sex mania

Michael Bywater reviews Sunbathing Naked and Other Miracle Cures by Guy Kennaway

Those of you about to head for the beach to expose your flesh (carefully oiled and lightly tanned from winter sunbeddery), spare a thought for Guy Kennaway, cursed with his own monstrous ugliness.

You'd not have wanted to look at him, before the miracle cure. Skin flaking like a shedding snake, crouched in the shadows, a humble toad among men.

Psoriasis is what Kennaway had. What he has, because psoriasis is like alcoholism: it never goes away, but only remits. Unlike alcoholism, though, there's no sure-fire way of provoking remission.

I've bumped into Kennaway a few times over the years. He seemed like a perfectly handsome, even rather dashing, sort of a man.

But inside, as we read, it was a different story. His skin subsumed his life. Cogito ergo sum is debatable, but there's no quibbling with credo ergo sum: I believe myself ugly, therefore I am ugly.

It's the opposite of movie-star syndrome. They believe themselves gorgeous and magnetically irresistible, and so we believe it, too.

The main plot of Sunbathing Naked is simple. Man has psoriasis. Believes himself ugly. Tries everything. Failed by everything. Then finally fetches up in a hotel by the Dead Sea, surrounded by other psoriasists, sunbathing naked.

In this community of the dermatologically damned, the sins of the skin are universally visible and so recede. For the first time, they all feel themselves to be - as indeed they all are - normal.

Sunbathing Naked is not another "misery memoir".

Kennaway, a fine novelist, is too interested in other people, and in his fellow-psoriasists he finds plenty of material: the man so obsessed with finding a cure for his daughter that he nearly destroys his family; Howard, who emigrates to Wales because he believes the fortunes of Ipswich Town football club are responsible for his condition ("doing a geographical", it's called, and it doesn't work; Howard gets drunk and throws himself off a bridge); Gary, whose summer sojourn in Jamaica is combined with an annual Saturnalia with his mistress and who, one year, finds his psoriasis better, which is a curse because he has no excuse to go to Jamaica, and so he tries everything he can think of to make it come back, including throwing his film catering business into jeopardy, drinking like a fish, eating spicy foods, all to no avail; the girl who, in Israel, becomes smooth-skinned and golden, and embraces her new role as an object of sexual desire with glee.

This last is what happens to Kennaway. He leaves Israel feeling handsome, acceptable, desirable. Of course there are consequences. "Socrates said the male libido was like being chained to a madman," he writes. "In my case the chain broke and I was the madman."

This husband and father becomes sexually hyperactive. It is as if the barker from Tarantino's film From Dusk till Dawn is continually yelling "Pussy pussy pussy!" at him. Even the act of filling his car with petrol becomes a sexual image.

He ends up incarcerated in a mental hospital in Arizona as a sex addict.

Again, his depictions of his fellow sufferers are the stuff of fiction. Even at rock bottom, Kennaway is still looking outwards; perhaps that's the root of his problem. Other people come first.

We hear and read a lot about women's body image but the unappealing woman is an oddity in popular culture; men, on the other hand, are perceived as ugly until proven otherwise. And most of us believe it.

What happens to us if we stop feeling that way? Kennaway's story suggests that we go mad and have to be banged up: perhaps telling us we're all toads, lumps, baboons is a good way of keeping the lunatic in chains.

Sunbathing Naked is a fine work by a writer with the imagination to see himself as just one among many. It's subtle, compelling and funny.

And it makes one wonder whether counting one's blessings isn't rather less helpful than counting the curses one has escaped.
 

[spotthedifference]

I've never heard of this book before...sounds riviting, I'll need to get it on Amazon 

[Anglichanin]

psoriasist

Hmmmmm - i have been called some things in my time but ......... 

[LOVELL100]

Hi,  First time poster!!  Had P for about 12 years now, started when I was 16. 

Just in response to this I read this book and it really is good.  I have given it to my family to read as it really sums up how P makes me feel... Perhaps will make them understand a bit better!!

Anyway.  He also talked about devolpoing a suuport netowrk so I thought I would give this a try!!

[hank]

welcome Lovell

Hi,  First time poster!!  Had P for about 12 years now, started when I was 16. 

Just in response to this I read this book and it really is good.  I have given it to my family to read as it really sums up how P makes me feel... Perhaps will make them understand a bit better!!

Anyway.  He also talked about devolpoing a suuport netowrk so I thought I would give this a try!!

this is good support network, you should post in the history room as new otherwise your post may get overlooked as there have been a lot of threads about the book.
Just introduce yourslef and that will be it everyone can get ot know you
See you there

[spotthedifference]

I have bought this book, and I am loving it!! On page 79 already and it just arrived today..I have laugh a number of times and cried twice..

Anyway for those who have read it there is a lot of discussion about temperature (and heating boilers in particular) and the fact his skin way always over heating and I looked it up online and found this interesting info:

"The above conditions affect the physiological homeostasis (balance of functions of the internal organs) and upset one's temperature regulatory mechanisms. An area of the brain called Hypothalamus controls a person's body temperature. In persons with Psoriasis, it has been observed that the temperature regulatory mechanism of the Hypothalamus is upset. Clinical studies by reputed Ayurveda hospitals and Ayurveda Medical Colleges in Kerala have recorded a higher body temperature of the patients at the time of admission for treatment. Mentally stressful conditions of the patient contribute very largely to this higher body temperature and the mental trauma experienced by him/her due to the disease aggravates it further. After treatment the body temperature has been observed to revert back to normalcy.

The higher body temperature cause lesions on the skin to appear and when the scaly epidermis is peeled off and discarded, the underlying dermis and its complex systems of blood vessels, nerve endings etc are affected adversely.

The food constituents in excess that could trigger the onset of the disease are:

a) Hot, salty, spicy, acidic food.
b) Freshly harvested grains and sesame seeds in particular.
c) Milk and milk products, particularly yogurt and buttermilk.
d) Fish, honey, jaggery (crystallized/ partly dehydrated molasses).
e) Alcohol.

Obviously a number of other things can raise body temp- anger/embarrassment

mmm interesting ; )

xx

[guyk]

I never really linked the idea of embarrassment and actual physical heat, in the book.  I wrote about both but can see from your post that they are the same thing - to psoriasis.  Thanks for showing me that.  Hope you enjoy from page 79 to the end. guy kennaway

[spotthedifference]

All done. Incredible book!

Could read another 244 pages please Guy, when you are ready ; )

The condition to me is as fascinating as it is frustrating, and although I will cry at least once every few weeks about it (a decade of tears), so many elements of my life would be lacking without it. My life would be extremely superficial.

I have dragged myself from the depths of despair and although I am still climbing (all be it in my flip flops) to the top of Everest, I plan to arrive at the top, elated and exhausted!

I have managed to control psoriasis and have an exciting life snowboarding, working in marketing and partying like a trooper, parallel to my condition. It has never stopped me, although it has slowed me down and made me feel alone at times.

I do believe we are marginalised in society and would love to see the condition flipped on its head (or just exposed in a positive light) in the media. I have been a marketing manager for approx 3 years now and anything can be cool, if you have the right PR company/celebrity endorsements/designer ; ) Carrie Dee (America’s Next Top Model winner) did wonders for the plight of the psoriasis suffers in the US, we just need someone in the UK to fly the flag………..preferably wearing a bikini!

Any takers??   

Anyway, thank you so much for the book! I thoroughly enjoyed it ; ) and I am sure I will read it again and again.

xx

'Every adversity carries within it the seed of equal or greater benefit.'

[SJ]

I get hot when my skin is flaring or particularly bad - not surprising when your largest organ, which is part of the temperature regulation for the body, cannot breathe correctly because it is covered in a more skin than it ought to be!

I agree that Caradee has done a lot in bringing P to the attention of the masses. Shame she or her agents won't allow pictures of her pre-Raptiva to be used. That would do a lot more than just talking about it - but not one photo of her with psoriasis is in the public domain. When I see her, I see a beautiful woman with perfect skin; I don't see one of us!

SJ

[Mysterious Skin]

I agree that Caradee has done a lot in bringing P to the attention of the masses. Shame she or her agents won't allow pictures of her pre-Raptiva to be used. That would do a lot more than just talking about it - but not one photo of her with psoriasis is in the public domain. When I see her, I see a beautiful woman with perfect skin; I don't see one of us!

I guess we only have her word that she has psoriasis. And to what extent? A dime sized patch of psoriasis would ruin a modeling career. Is that how much she had? Psoriasis aside, she's obviously a good advert for Raptiva.