The Ha-Ha

The Ha-Ha
By Jennifer Dawson
Scribner, 2026/ 1961.177 pages. Fiction

At a tea party at Oxford University in the 1950s, earnest undergraduates in floral dresses clink cups, discussing their studies, sports, and summer balls. But to one student, Josephine, they are grotesquely transformed: she is sitting among ominous armadillos. Then, the laughter comes. As she is engulfed in mirthless hysterics, her college has no choice but to send her away. Since her mother's death, Josephine's reality seems a badly painted canvas, viewed through the wrong end of a telescope. It is a relief to find a sense of belonging, for once, within the mental institution where she is confined. But, eventually, she must reintegrate with society. Through a transformative encounter with a fellow patient, a return to real life seems possible.

If you too love a book about a woman unraveling, this book is well-worth your time! Often compared to The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Dawson’s book predates it but never reached the same level of recognition. The Ha-Ha follows a young woman, Josephine, who is committed to a mental institution while in college. Influenced by the author's experience of also being committed in the 50's and working as a mental health professional later in life, this provides incredible insight into that era's attitudes of mental health.

The writing is intimate, surreal, philosophical, and dynamic as it shifts through her emotional states and thoughts. What I found to be so profound and relatable was the main character's experience in reckoning with the meaning of life and pressure to conform in society. She moves beyond what her late mother, the doctors, and classmates expects of her and discovers an expansive truth in the absurdity of existence. Moving through this discovery with the main character is bleak at times but ends with hope and possibility.  In her newfound freedom she says “I was born for something more than mere sanity" and “I was born for so much joy.”

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MT