5 comments about A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness.

1. I have to admit that his books are compelling but I didn't think they were convincing. There were a lot of unanswered questions and non enough substantial information to make it real to me.



2. It was very exciting to find out how his adulthood went for him. I give Dave a lot of credit for forgiving his mother after all she put him through. God bless this man for sharing his life story. Hopefully, this will help other abuse victims out.



3. The book is just as good as expected after the first 2, if not better.



4. This book is the conclusion to a trilogy written by Dave Pelzer. The other two were A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy. All three are touching stories that arouse a range of emotions and are filled with the unbelievable horrors of child abuse and its aftermath.
   
   This book provides flash backs to Dave's physical and mental abuse at the hands of his mentally ill mother, his rescue by school teachers, his life in and out of foster and juvenile homes, his escape and success to and with the air force, getting to know his biological family, his struggle learning social skills, coping with the death of his father, living with and marrying a woman he did not love, becoming a father, learning to trust, helping others, forgiving his mother, finding love, and succeeding as an author and "speaker."
   
   David Pelzer's story as a survivor of one of the most horrific cases of child abuses ever documented is a must read for people of all ages and backgrounds who come into contact with children to recognize and help prevent this kind of crime to humanity.
   
   Dave's ability to describe and articulate his fears and feelings have touched the heartstrings of teachers, medical providers, police, social workers, legislators, parents, and numerous other people in our communities and have undoubtedly saved the lives of thousands of children.
   
   Thanks for bearing your soul Dave, you touched our heart and saved precious lives!



5. As I read this book, I was so captivated and distraught at times. It touched me to the core and made me cherish and value life more. This is the last book of the trilogy by David Pelzer and the ending couldn't have been more befitting. How a beautiful family is destroyed due to the alcoholism of the parents stands at the core of this really brutal tale. If it was a work of fiction, one might just dismiss it, but the fact that a mother could be so brutal to her son, is just so very incomprehensible! The fact that the tragic life of Dave ends in triumph gives immense satisfaction to me as a reader. It's simply amazing how he survives through sheer determination and immense will power and eventually triumphs.
   The most poignant lesson here is the human ability to forgive. And Dave does forgive his mom in the end, thereby making him a `real' man. His challenges in life did not leave him bitter and resentful, in fact they compelled him on a greater course in life whereby he helped millions of kids who have suffered like him.

5 comments about Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence.

1. Luke Jackson, the thirteen-year-old author of this book, says he wrote it because "so many books are written about us, but none are written directly to adolescents with Asperger Syndrome. I thought I would write one in the hope that we could all learn together." And he does an amazing job of appealing to his peers in a colloquial manner. Jackson's style is almost precocious at times, but effective. He tackles many topics, includinging sensory perception, physiology, and sleep, listing some helpful tips. For example, Jackson suggests to look at people's mouths when they're talking, which is close enough to making eye contact.The section on physiology discussed, among other things, the GF/CF diet.
   
   Next Jackson writes about language difficulties, dealing with slang and idioms, and suggests to parents that they write out steps to complete a task and give clear and specific instructions. The next chapters cover school problems and bullying, with some tips for dealing with bullies, stressing that it's important to tell someone. Jackson then mentions Taekwondo for self-defense, as well as the many other benefits it provides. The following three chapters deal with friendships, dating, and morals and principles. The "morals and principles" chapter also is beneficial in that it stresses not to let people entice you to do something that is wrong, that you don't need friends like that.
   
   The end of the book has a nice positive note about AS people being amazing in their own ways, even if not savants (after a discussion about the movie Rainman). It is certainly amazing for a thirteen-year-old to write such an organized, insightful book. I found it to be very helpful, including the appendices on idioms (with definitions of being "on cloud nine" and "don't cry over spilled milk") and references for further information (books, websites, and organizations). All in all, a worthwhile book for parents and kids alike.



2. I read it, my Dad read it in 2 days. Very practical, humorous.When my son, with Asperger's, gets a little older, I will give this book to him. I want to meet Luke Jackson. What a great personality!



3. This book is a keeper. Luke speaks from experience and shares his experience and suggestions for kids with aspergers, parents, friends and physicians on how a an AS kid can handle real-life situations by sharing what has worked for him. This book is an easy read and would be good for teens and adults to read whether they have AS themselves or are related to or know someone who does.



4. This was a great resource for us as parents of an Asperger son to get an idea of how the adolescent with Asperger thinks and relates to others. It will eventually be a great book to let our son read. The adolescent author of this book feels very strongly that all Asperger children should be told what they have (by name) so that they won't feel like something is wrong with them, but will come to understand that they are the way they are because of Aspergers.



5. This book is intended for a person with Asperger's however, it can also be used by a child being bullied.

5 comments about Madness: A Bipolar Life.

1. I read this book in 2 days and felt the rush and lows - if you or someone you love has bipolar, depression, PTSD, or even is just plain crazy as as a loon you can hear Marya's voice that imperfection is ok...if anything i learned that much. My favorite quote in this book is this:
   
   "But if you're not trying to be perfect then how do you know if you're doing things right"?



2. Marya Hornbacher has poured her heart and soul onto every page of this horrifying account of bipolar disorder beginning in childhood.
   
   However, the entire story demonstrates the loopholes in conventional psychiatry that almost exclusively focuses on treating the mind while leaving the body and spirit out of the equation.
   
   This memoir demonstrates how intertwined addiction and bipolar are and how hard it is to treat one without treating the other. Although Hornbacher overcame anorexia, her eating addiction just became less extreme and she traded starving herself for drugs and sex. The addict within her wanted her to be mentally ill so it would have an excuse to perpetuate itself.
   
   Within the medical journals, within metaphysics books, there is so much information on techniques for healing from mental illness, yet conventional psychiatry focuses almost exclusively on psychopharmacology. This is ironic, because if you have a chemical imbalance to begin with, you are going to be more sensitive to side effects than the average person. Although for those who have bipolar disorder, medication is often a necessary part of the mental health equation, it should not be the entire equation. There are so many ways to help balance brain chemistry. Meditation, nutrition, exercise, and deep breathing are just a few of them.
   
   Hornbacher did end up with an exceptional psychiatrist who never gave up on finding a way to get through to his patient. What returned Hornbacher to functionality was a combination of such elements as medication, light treatment, and nutrition.



3. This is not literature, even though the author poses as a writer. This is a girl's diary, and a bad one as that.
   Marya, more as good marketer than a good writer, gives us voyeurs what we want: a peep hole into the life of someone extreme, a lifestyle that most of us, in our boring 9 to 5 lives, maybe would like to taste once in a while. We live in a world of celebrities, of gossip, of tabloids paying millions of dollars for the pictures of a newborn. Marya was very lucky to carve a niche, as the troubled teen who cuts herself, has promiscuous sex and a wild life. Who wouldn't want to peek into that? Had she tried to make a herself a name with a non-fiction book, she wouldn't exist as an author today.
   But literature this isn't. The book is totally monotonous in its maniac self-absorption. Bipolar? Where is the depression? Where is the self-analysis that comes with a reflexive mood? Not there. It is just a succession of very superficial daily happenings, one after the other, and their superficial effect on the author. In order to build the story, the impressions she brings from her childhood sound totally fake and constructed. Who the heck remembers vivid feelings when you were a 8 year-old?
   This is a lost opportunity for a reflection on the existential and philosophical aspects of bipolar disorder, on the role of the bipolar person in the world. Again, this is just a diary.



4. I wanted to read this book because I am a fan of Marya's and have read both "Wasted" and "The Center of Winter". Mostly I was anxious for this one because I've always suspected I myself was Bipolar, and was needless to say more than curious to read about a first hand account of living with this disease from someone I so admire. The book is certainly really intense. There is virtually no detail left uncovered, she spares no expense when describing her worst hells and best highs. She does seem to at times have a flair for the dramatic, taking seemingly innocuous events and making them into grandiouse experiences. But then again, I guess in a way thats exactly what part of being Bipolar means, right?
   
   It was extremely informative and harrowing to read, and although she doesnt seek people's pity or sympathy, you can't help but feel for this woman because of all the stuff she's been through. Whether some of it was brought on herself or if it was from things she couldn't control. I experienced mild bouts of anxiety just reading this because it seemed that she had so many burdens at once at times. Just, wow. Its a lot for once person to balance and deal with on a daily basis. Needless to say I admire her even more because of this. She is an extremely gifted and eloquent writer, that much cannot be ignored. While I suspect I have a much more mild version of Bipolar, Bipolar II, I could definitely identify with a lot of what Marya depicted. The feelings of being invincible, untouchable at times....even though it was completely unwarranted and random. Wreckless and indulgent behavior, impulsive decision making with little to no care in the reprecussions. Depressions so low that I don't even want to think about the next day and the one after that. The way the two feelings can fluctuate and intertwine themselves so quickly and effortlessly, it's scary. You truly feel like you're no longer at the helm and something, someone bigger than you is steering and taking over.
   
   This book was very helpful for me because it made me realize I need help to get this under control, if I want to ever live a healthy and functioning life, I can't just self medicate, self-diagnose, and turn a blind eye to whats become so obvious. There is a lot of information following the end of the book, as far as useful links and facts about Bipolar Disorder. She dispells a lot of myths and sheds light on many facets of the disease. There's long, long, lists of websites and the like to go to for info and help. Some of which I have already visited myself.
   
   But the book- overall it was really good, maybe a bit lengthy and somewhat redundant at times, but the good far outweighs whatever bad there might be.



5. I have read both of Marya's books and while I do believe she has suffered from both a mental illness and eating disorder, I find parts of it to be either exaggerated or written for creative flow. Also, in a way it is like the same book twice as she covers the very same years she covered in her previous novel Wasted. Only here we hear nothing of her problems being realated to being bulimic or anorexic but rather she was bipolar from the age of 5 and no one knew.
   
   What I find to be unbelievable is her recall verbatim from the age of 5. Who really can remember their childhood or even last year that vividly? Also, being in a state of disorientation begs the question again of how believable the incidents are in the novel.
   
   I find that as in Wasted Marya tends to blame society, the health care system anyone but herself for the problems she has faced last time she wrote it was her against the diet industry, against the culture of being thin equates with beauty now it's the healthcare industry not recognizing mental illness for what it truly is a life debilitating illness with no real cure.
   
   The most disturbing concept she brought forth that compelled me to review this is her theory of being bi-polar by age 5 and that by age 10 or 11 the psychiatrists she had seen couldn't see that, I am sorry there are reasons why a child is not given a psychological diagnosis a child's mind is still growing and developing and to suggest giving psychoactive drugs to a 10 year old is not only irresponsible but dangerous. I have a feeling this is not the last we will hear of Marya as mental diagnosis can and do change, I would not be surprised if she were to develop other personality disorders along the way.

5 comments about Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.

1. I absolutely could not put this book down! What an amazing individual Daniel is. I would love to meet him. I was amazed at how fluid the book was given it was written by an autistic person. I HIGHLY recommend this book!



2. Daniel Tammet has penned his account of his life, through his 27th year, as a British autistic savant who has navigated through his life with Asperger's syndrome and synesthesia. He captures with meticulous detail the rhythm and routine of his life and recounts his events and experiences though offers few thoughts about his inner thinking.
   
   His prose (and one has to wonder how heavy or light a hand his editors wielded) is precise and measured--not surprisingly--but the overall story does not crackle with excitement or energy. Hence, Mr. Tammet's biopic no doubt seems oddly dry as he does not rely on embellishment or stray from his point, but tends to present the facts in a straightforward and thrifty manner.
   
   Mr. Tammet admittedly leads an insular, interior life, and that perspective also infuses his writing here. Yet there are surprises along the way: his first experience with tears, his acceptance of Christianity, his falling in love. In some ways, his advanced abilities in math and language are secondary to the rituals of life that he relies on to keep him grounded and functioning.
   
   Yet, I somehow wanted more from this book, perhaps more insights into the inner working of someone with Asperger's syndrome and a bit more detail of how Mr. Tammet's mind functions.



3. Though I work with autistic students, I was hoping after reading the reviews to find a book that was a bit more reader friendly. It skipped here and there with wild abandon.



4. Although autistic savants often amaze us with their feats of memory, typically they lack the communication and people skills to be able to share their stories with others. Daniel Tammet, a high-fuctioning autistic savant with Asperger's Syndrome, has lived an atypical life. He was featured in a documentary, "Brainman," and has appeared on numerous television shows around the world. The title of the book comes from David's synethesia. He identifies numbers and words as colors or shapes. Thus his Wednesday birthdate translates to "a blue day" because the word "Wednesday" is colored blue in his mind's eye. If you enjoyed the movie, "Rainman," you'll appreciate reading about this most unusual autistic man.



5. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet is an autobiography that you will either find totally engrossing or terribly tedious. Fortunately, I was one who was enthralled by Tammet and his incredible story.
   
   Tammet is unusual in many ways. First, he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (a high level form of Autism), but not until he was 24 years old. He describes in great detail his childhood experiences and how different he was from others. Second, he is a savant with extraordinary abilities in math and languages. In fact, he is so unique that he was featured in a documentary called "Brainman," a take-off on the movie about another savant, "Rainman." And last, what makes him truly incredible is that he is able to express and explain to others how he views his world--something very difficult for people with Autism.
   
   I found Tammet's entire story fascinating--how he sees numbers as colors and shapes, how his loving family supported this difficult but gifted child, his schooling, his journeys to other countries to teach English, the scientific studies that have been done on him and most of all, how he copes as an adult. I found it especially interesting as an educator to see how the Autistic mind works.
   
   How very fortunate we are that Daniel Tammet was able to give us his story in Born on a Blue Day.

5 comments about Drinking: A Love Story.

1. After reading this book, I googled Caroline Knapp only to discover, to my great disappointment, that she died recently of lung cancer at the youthful age of 42. So sad. Drinking is fantastic. She cleverly weaves through her life as a privileged young adult to parents of means and into the life of an alcoholic. Most impressive is Knapp's ability to weave personal stories out of chronological order and placed more precisely according to her path toward recovering, alongside factual information about alcohol abuse in general. She holds herself no victim and accepts personal accountability while also endearing the reader to sympathize very well. I think I drink too much wine now.



2. "Drinking: A Love Story" - even the title is compelling. And the first line - "It happened this way: I fell in love and then, because the love was ruining everything I cared about, I had to fall out." And the love to which she is referring is, of course, with alcohol.
   
   And she's right...although I never thought about alcoholism that way before. There are many similarities between this love and the love for someone who seems perfect at first but turns out to be life changing in the most destructive ways.
   
   "I loved the way drink made me feel, and I loved its special power of deflection; its ability to shift my focus away from my own awareness of self and onto something else, something less painful than my own feeling. I loved the sounds of drink: the slide of a cork as it eased out of a wine bottle, the distinct glug-glug of booze pouring into a glass, the clatter of ice cubes in a tumbler. I loved the rituals, the camaraderie of drinking with others, the warming, melting feelings of ease and courage it gave me."
   
   Seductive, isn't it?
   
   Caroline Knapp is painfully honest as she tells her story, seemingly holding nothing back as she tells the reader about her theories on her own alcoholism, about the factors in her life, physical, emotional and circumstantial that may have contributed to this deadly love. While I am very fortunate to not share that love, I sympathized with her many times as she described her life.
   
   "Growing up, I never heard my parents say "I love you," not to us and not to each other. I never heard them fight either. That's something else."
   
   I must have read that line a dozen times in disbelief. While she never describes any physical abuse, the idea that a child grows up not hearing "I love you" several times a day from their parent just breaks my heart.
   
   I once worked with a man who was a recovering alcoholic, and I remember him asking me if I was able to have just one drink at a sitting. I told him I was, that sometimes that drink would go unfinished. He shook his head and told me that he couldn't imagine taking a first sip of a drink and then not ending up blacking out at the end of an evening. So this section resonated with me.
   
   "My mother didn't drink that way. Neither did my sister. They'd have a glass of wine at dinner - a single glass - and if you tried to pour more, they'd cover the glass with a hand and say, "No, thanks. I've had enough". Enough? That's a foreign word to an alcoholic, absolutely unknown. There is never enough, no such thing."
   
   That thought is chilling to me - that once the drinking starts - it never stops.
   
   The description of the elaborate planning that goes into being a "high functioning alcoholic" (as Knapp describes herself) seemed exhausting to me. Visiting different liquor stores each day, making up parties and events to explain the volume of the purchases, hiding booze in closets and plants. Though much of Knapp's story comes through in the carefully strengthening voice of someone who has lived through a nightmare and is carefully rebuilding, sometimes she is able to look at her past life with humor.
   
   "Recycling is a problem to the active alcoholic: you have to see all those bottles, heaped together in the recycling bin, and that can be a disconcerting image. Luckily, I did most of my solitary, alcoholic drinking in communities that didn't then recycle, so I'd pile the bottles into a heavy plastic garbage bag and lug them out to the curb or heave them into a Dumpster, hoping no one nearby heard all the glass clinking and rattling as I went along."
   
   Caroline Knapp's story is a compelling one, a look at the destruction that the love of drink can have on a life, on several lives as she talks to people she meets in AA, on a country as she gives chilling statistics and facts. And it's a story that doesn't have a happy ending.
   
   As the book comes to a close, she is still sober, but she is the first to admit that the odds are against her and that it is a daily, hourly fight to stay that way.
   
   "I once heard a woman say that as an alcoholic, a part of her will always be deeply attracted to alcohol, which seemed a very simple way of putting it, and very true. The attraction - the pull, the hunger, the yearning - doesn't die when you say goodbye to the drink, any more than the pull toward a bad lover dies when you finally walk out the door."
   
   Because, of course, while closed, that door is still there, and can be opened once again.



3. What a fantastic book. Not just about alcoholism but the human struggle to live in our own skin, face our problems, our losses and move forward. Also a moving story about an amazingly honest woman. I'm not an alcoholic, but I use the stuff many times to not deal with things, and this book helped me to see that there is something more noble in steering clear of that kind of behavior and seeking more authentic experience. She's done a wonderful job of letting us in on her struggle, and somehow illuminating our own. I was terribly sad to find out that she had passed away some years ago, but she certainly left behind a great gift of inspiration. Her father's quote is a wonderful gem: "Insight is almost always a rearrangement of fact." Her insights bear this out. I wish I had the guts to buy this book for all my girlfriends.



4. I loved this book. I reread it every once in a while because it's so intelligent and beautifully written. It gets a alot of attention as a memoir of addiction (and it's the best one I've ever read), but it stand on it's own as an exquisite piece of writing and a memoir - time spent with a brilliant and nuanced mind, a sophisticated and sensitive person. I wish wish wish I could spend more.



5. I'm not going to go on and on about how I analyzed this book and pretend like I'm an expert, but I will say that I loved it. I read it for a health and behavior class intended for exercise science majors. It is an excellent book for females to read and I know many females will be able to relate and feel comfort in Knapp's words, whether or not the reader herself is an alcoholic.

5 comments about The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.).

1. The first time that I had ever heard about the Oxford English Dictionary, I was a freshman at Bryn Mawr-- straight from the sticks. I had tested out of needing to take the freshman English classes, and had plunged straightaway into classes that were aimed at upper classman. While eventually that turned out to be fine, my very first class was with a peach of a gentleman who clearly found me an unlettered barbarian who should have been sent back to the freshman comp classes-- or even worse. I was not only an unlettered barbarian, but a *stubborn* unlettered barbarian and we fought about absolutely everything. A little bit over midway through the semester, he marked me down on a paper because I used the word "meld". He scribbled in the margin: "Not a word!" Furious, I went to the library and came back with a popular dictionary and I held the entry for "meld" under his nose during his office hours. He icily slammed the book shut and glared at me. "If it is not in the Oxford English Dictionary," he said, "it is not a word!"
   
   That began my lifelong love-hate relationship with the OED. At least with the idea of the OED. I've somehow never managed to acquire my own copy. (I keep telling B. that I'd love one for my birthday, but I'm pretty sure that he doesn't believe that I'm serious.) But still, The Professor and the Madman was kind of a natural for me. People have been recommending it to me ever since it appeared; I've had several offers to lend it to me (I don't borrow books); I've had it regularly suggested on Amazon. I finally picked up my own copy second-hand. And now, reader, I've finally read the book.
   
   And-- honestly-- it's a little bit anticlimactic. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice book. It's one of these new breed of nonfiction books that read mostly like magazine articles writ large. Winchester delivers a very good magazine article writ large. It is surely entertaining, very interesting, decently written and a good story. What else could you want?
   
   I would have *perhaps* wanted a little more about the history of the Dictionary and a little bit less about Minor. But this isn't a fair remark, as that was the subject of the book. But that would have added more substance, and if I have a criticism it is surely that the book is not very substantial.
   
   Know someone who loves words? This is probably an excellent gift. It's unlikely to be controversial, and they will probably get a kick out of it. Do not expect too much, and you will not be disappointed.
   
   (I really appreciated, by the way, that Winchester included a list of suggestions for further reading. I will definitely be following some of those up.)



2. Absent the anti-Christian bias of his geological disaster books, Winchester writes a very good tale about a fascinating sidebar of history during the compilation of the OED. The madman was an American military surgeon (son of missionaries to Sri Lanka!) who served in the Union army during the Civil War, whose slow spiral to insanity culminated in the shooting of an innocent man in London 15 years later. The professor was the editor of the OED who corresponded with the madman for 20 years at the asylum outside London where he made a full-time career of volunteering word lists and quotes to the OED editorial team.
   
   How their histories shadowed and paths crossed, and how the OED came to be, make for a great story. The book was lavishly praised and worthily so, reading like a psychological thriller that can't be put down. I literally read through this in less than 24 hours in just a few sittings.



3. Many academics and scholars border on creative madness, take Kierkegaard and Nietzsche for example. This book is marvellous reading since the dull subject of dictionary making is enlivened by eccentric personalities and mental disturbance. It reveals how a dictionary as prestigious as the Oxford English Dictionary was put together. Any author who can make such a dry subject as exciting as a murder mystery deserves a good deal of credit and acclaim.



4. There is a certain "Did you know..." factor about the "new" genre of creative nonfiction: we read it for both the informative componenet, and the fact that quite a bit of history is, well, interesting. Did you know, for example, that the main contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary was insane?
   
   Dr. W.C. Minor was an American soldier in the Civil War, who later moved to England, where he wound up shooting a man. He was placed in an asylum (not the greatest of places in those days), where he was given a few more perks than the other inmates, simply because he was non-violent (despite the reason for his incarceration) and intelligent. One day, he happened to come across an advertisement: Professor James Murray, along with an elite group of gentlemen, was creating the single-greatest compilation of the English language ever conceived. Minor, with nothing but time on his hands, decided to pitch in. Over ten-thousand words later, Minor was the single-greatest contributor to the single-greatest dictionary ever created.
   
   It is a compelling, surprising story, told in Winchester's usual novel-meets-nonfiction style. While I enjoy a good piece of creative nonfiction, I find myself time and time again returning to Winchester's work not necessarily because of the topic, but because I enjoy his style so much. (It just so happens he chooses interesting topics to write upon.) The "P.S." section of this book, as with the others, doesn't offer too much, though there is an intriguing little section: Winchester's favorite words from the OED. Still, you'll purchase "The Professor and the Madman" for the story itself--and it's a doozy. True, too. Funny, how facts can sometimes be more interesting--and harder to believe--than fiction.



5. Simon Winchester has come up with a nifty little tale of the making of the OED. It's a fun little gem from history, and worth the read. My only complaints are: the book would have been more interesting if he had included some pictures, and the tale itself is pretty small. The publisher makes up for this by using large type, double spaced, with wide paragraph separation. But it's still a footnote in history, and you can't hide that fact.

5 comments about Girl, Interrupted.

1. It's actually one of the better memoirs of recent vintage (it came out in 1993 and became a bestseller in 2000, with the film's release). Not that SK is very insightful about her `borderline personality' disorder, nor capable of extended moments of insight nor poetry, but she compensates for her lack of great craftsmanship in wordplay and sentence/paragraph construction with a daring approach to the memoir.
   
   The book, with larger than normal print, is not even 170 pages in the Vintage edition I read, and there's plenty of white space, as well as transcripts of SK's mental diagnoses within. In a sense, this sets up the piece to be quite poetic. In fact, this is where the poesy of the prose comes from, not the ability to craft gorgeous prose. Most of the few dozen `chapters' are brief- 3-4 pages is usual, and they are often dreamy or hazy recollections that sometimes briefly, violently come into focus, in describing a fellow patient's ill or death. In other chapters SK goes off rambling about mental ills, philosophy, her sexual precocity, and other things. While many of these individual reminiscences and airies fall flat, the way they are woven together and contrast with each other allow make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
   
   This synergy got me to thinking of a poetic equivalent, and the manifest answer was the long Maximus poem series by Charles Olson- another Massachusetts resident. In that poem series, one of the few `experimental' works of poetry that actually coheres and is good, CO strings together many poems about his hometown, yet each poem/stanza is, in a sense, lacking- it fails as an individual work because it is incomplete. Yet, read one after the other the incomplete figurines each `poem' makes connect up. It's like looking at a single Matissean line on a piece of tissue paper. The individual curves and twists seem random until you lay each tissue paper over the next. Then, the full, intricate, and interesting picture emerges. Such it was in CO's poem sequence, and such it is in SK's memoir- each `chapter' a single line, sometimes non-chronological, that gives a better representation of her mindset than any straightforward prose could. Interestingly, in looking up reviews of the book, I was struck by how not a single published review (at least those online) ever mentioned this, even though the form of the book jumped out at me. This is evidence of piss poor criticism. It's akin to reviewing the first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass, dismissing it as smutty, and not even commenting on the breakthrough structure of the free verse.
   
   There is little bitching, and poseur pity.... In short, Girl, Interrupted is a very good work, and what any memoirist should strive to achieve. The very fact that many critics criticized it for, when boiled down, not filling their conventional needs as a reader, and chose to review it against what what they wanted (expected) it to be, argues for its specialness, and I'd bet that it will be read long after Prozac Nation or A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius have gone out of print. Smile at that, Susanna.



2. This was...senseless jibberjaw..Truly that is the only word that comes to mind. The movie was wonderful, but I can see now that it was very loosely based on this book.. It took a few characters and added on to their personalities.. the book was mostly just rambling and opinions. Half of the interesting things that occured in the movie were not in this book. Those that love the movie will be greatly disapointed in this. I would also like to add, you will have in completely read in one or two sittings.



3. On the first page of her novel(?), Susanna Kaysen says she had to live for two years in a "parallel universe" when she became a patient in a psychiatric hospital. In the chapter "Elementary Topography," she poses a question, how did I get to be in here?
   The answer she gives, other than her being delusional, is that she was in a "state of contrariety." She goes on, "All of my integrity seemed to lie in saying No."
   Two other chapters bear witness to the adversarial character of her illness, "Velocity vs. Viscosity," which deals with her obsessive thought patterns, and "Mind vs. Brain:"
   "Whatever we call it--mind, character, soul--we like to think it possesses something that is greater than the sum of its neurons, and that 'animates' us."
   In yet another chapter, Kaysen derides her former therapist, who was named "Melvin," and who was to become her analyst. She acts like she tolerated him as someone imposed on her, and says that she "felt sorry for him" on account of his funny name. In an internal memo, however, a nurse reported that she experienced extreme anxiety over her therapist being absent.
   Part of Kaysen's "state of contrariety," then, must be seen in the light of an abject, back-against-the-wall helplessness caused by the mental illness. I pity Kaysen for her interrupted life. Her novel makes a compelling case for mental-illness research.
   In the Charleston County Library, >Girl, Interrupted< is located in the "Young Adult Fiction" section, which is inappropriate for such a rough, lurid story.



4. Susanna Kaysen shares an episodic account of her two-year stay in a mental institution during her late teens. She recounts the ailments and behavior which led her to the hospital, while also questioning her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, as well as the manner in which mental illnesses are treated. In order to portray her experience and the experiences of the other young women she encountered within the institution accurately, Kaysen recounts a variety of occurrences, ranging from the grim to the lighthearted. Among Kaysen's recollections are one girl's experience with shock therapy, her own attempt to bite into her hand to ensure that she is "real," and the girls' humorous outing to an ice cream shop.
   
   Copies of Kaysen's medical records are juxtaposed against her personal accounts, often making the tone of the former documents unsettlingly cold and detached. Her personal account is often moving, and even the logic Kaysen uses to explain some of her most unusual behavior can make sense. At the same time, she strives for a relatively objective account of her interaction with mental health professionals. Kaysen presents a strong case to support her belief that the line between "normalcy" and mental illness is often muddied,--a thought she summarizes beautifully at the beginning of the book, writing that "Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco"-- without becoming overly critical of those who diagnosed and treated her.



5. Having PTSD myself from Wars and other things, I thought this was a great movie! I didn't read the book first however and normally I do but from what I gather the movie in this instance was much better than the book...
   
   I have read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and in many ways this reminded me of that, only in the setting of a female dominated one vice a male one....
   
   Maybe in the future if time permits I will read the book itself to see if the movie which I have already seen and truly thought was great stacks up...
   
   If not...
   
   It was that book which inspired the movie and it's a great movie...
   
   And mental illness isn't just something that people are born with, some times they receive it through traumatic experiences such as tragedies or war or the like...
   
   In my opinion it is something that really needs to be given far more attention than it is receiving and this movie sheds light on it like few have...
   
   Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak

5 comments about Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve.

1. I have always admired Dana and Chris Reeves. Not only for their journey but for their love for each other. This book is so touching. It starts off from the time when Chris was on his death bed till his death, from their the story takes off from how they met to Chris tragic horse accident. How they came through until Dana's last day on earth. I highly recommened this book to anyone who admired this couple or just wants to read a true love story!!!!!!!!!!!



2. It wasn't until I closed the book after finishing the last page that I realized how remarkable the story really was. After all, author Christopher Anderson's subtitle to Somewhere In Heaven stated "The remarkable love story of Dana and Christopher Reeve". And remarkable it was. After meeting and initially falling in love, the two were inseparable. They traveled, sailed, flew, skated on ice, you name it. They lived to the fullest extreme. Christopher, more so than Dana. He was the one doing his own movie stunts and hand gliding and riding horses in competitions. By all measures, he was Superman personified.
   
   Until that fateful day when his horse became spooked, stopped short of a jump, and Superman ceased living life as he knew it. Yet, later, much later, while petitioning Congress for money and rights for the disabled, he would state he missed his simple life, the quiet life that didn't generate so much attention. He never slowed down, never ceased living life even pinned to a wheelchair, unable to breath without help. He still taught his son to ride a bike, still produced movies, still acted as husband and father and friend to those lucky enough to be around him.
   
   It was in part due to Dana, his wife. A large part if you asked the world. It was her strength that helped Will, their son, manage the crisis without falling apart. And later, able to manage Dana's death with class. She was the one that told Christopher that he was "still you" when he was tempted to let them pull the plug following the accident.
   
   But there were those that played small, inspiring roles. Like Robin Williams, who days following the accident, showed up in Reeve's hospital room in scrubs with a heavy accent, playing the role of Proctologist. This would win him the first laugh from Reeve since the accident. Willaims would play jester to Reeve many times in the following years.
   
   The determination to not allow life's stumbling blocks to make them quit is why the Reeve's are so remarkable. Their focus no matter what stage of life was incredible. Whether acting in a movie or learning to walk again, they tackled each segment of life with an endurance that was rewarded with a love few find. Their story is one that will inspire you to live your life today the best you can. It takes the excuses away and minimizes the need to whine or complain. After all, if Superman can live life to the fullest whether flying in a hand glider or strapped to a wheelchair, why can't we?



3. The love between actor Christopher Reeve and his wife Dana finally reaches book form with SOMEWHERE IN HEAVEN, a striking story of the actor who produced four blockbuster Superman films and the romantic movie Somewhere In Time, who was paralyzed in a freak horseback-riding accident. For many life would end there; but Christopher Reeves became a 'poster man' for paralytics world-wide, and his heroic wife stayed by his side until his sudden death at age fifty-two. Seventeen months later she would be dead from lung cancer. Any library strong in film or biography will find this a compelling, moving lend.



4. As my husband is disabled and in a wheelchair also very early in life, he was 42, I enjoyed reading this love story of how two people were determined to make their marriage work through "Sickness and in Health". We have now been married 35 years. It can be done. When you say your wedding vows, and if you really mean them, you will stick it out through the rough times in life. This book was nearly a mirror image of what I am going through now. A must read for all married couples and couples soon to be married.



5. This is a most excellent story and wonderfully written. They were a great couple.

5 comments about Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness.

1. Anna ( Patty Duke), is a great lady! This book, An excellent and sad look at what a bipolar person goes through with and without help, I*m so happy that there is a name and treatment for this very sad illness. Anna tells it like it is and does it with class! May God Bless Anna Duke!



2. Can someone please give this book to Britney Spears? I'm not joking. I first read this book about 9 years ago when I was studying psychology in college and it was always one of my very favorite books on this subject. Because Ms. Duke is able to speak to the reader in such simple (yet interesting) words. Except for the old-fashioned term "manic depressive illness" (according to the APA, the correct term is bipolar, which sounds way more PC) this book is totally on the money. Another great book I recommend is Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface. In 2008 it seems rather common for celebrities to discuss their dementia, and anything else that the public wants to know. So it may seem hard to fathom that less than thirty years ago none of this was discussed publicly because it was considered "career suicide." But Patty Duke was the very first star who candidly discussed her own mental illness in her autobiography . In my eyes, she is a true shero.



3. Celebrities who come out about a physical or mental illness help us get past shame, but Patty Duke does a lot more in this autobiography where she alternates her memories with professionally written chapters about bipolar illness. As a mental health advocate, I recommend this book especially to give to people with the illness who aren't ready for technical or self-help books.



4. If you want to know some of the unbelieveable, unbearable pain and suffering of an un-treated manic-depressive, read this book. How Patty Duke lived to tell her story is a miracle. Thank God she finally found her way out of her madness She gives hope to her fellow sufferers. From the perspective of gut-wrenching pain just reading her account, the book works wonderfully. But as a narrative, I found it hard to follow. I felt jerked around from eposide to eposide. There didn't seem to be a timeline I could follow to know what happened, when. Also, it was very distracting to have to plow through the pages of medical, technical information that were dispersed throughout the book. Overall, it's a fine description of the illness, but frustrating to read.



5. I just finished this book, and I thought it was very readable and an excellent memoir describing issues related to bipolar. The honesty with which the book is written is commendable. I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to learn more about this disorder and how helpful appropriate treatment can be.

5 comments about My Lobotomy.

1. The incredibly moving story of Howard Duffy and the ways in which his life was changed (much for the worse) at the hands of an inexplicably horrible stepmother, his mostly absent father and Dr. Walter Freeman, the American psychiatrist who championed the use of "ice pick" lobotomies to "cure" psychiatric problems.
   
   Seeking to rid her home of Howard (whom she viewed as the "problem child") his stepmother shopped around for a psychiatrist who would support her opinions and "fix" the 12 year old Howard. Sadly for Howard, she found Walter Freeman. The mechanization that then went on to keep Howard out of the family's home are simply mind boggling -- he was eventually sent to an psychiatric facility for a year because, although he did not have serious psychiatric issues, there was "no place left to put him."
   
   A very sad book that speaks to the necessity of the oversight of psychiatric treatment and serves as a warning to us all about the dangers of The system."My one issue with the book is that it states that the 1920's were an "exciting time in neurology" because of the large number of servicemen who returned from WWI with Traumatic Brain Injuries. Which is no doubt true. However Duffy then states that this was due to the use of penicillin ("In earlier wars, because there was no penicillin, soldiers like that would have died from their wounds. Now many of them came home alive, but brain damaged." pg.62). Since Alexander Fleming didn't discover the famed penicillin in the bread mold until 1928, that's just not possible. The survival of said soldiers may have been due to other factors (improved surgical techniques, more hygienic surgeries, better armor, etc.) but is for sure wasn't due to penicillin, which only went into widespread use in WW2.



2. This is not a whodunit. We know whodunit. It was Lou Dully, Howard Dully's stepmother. She engineered a lobotomy for twelve-year-old Howard in 1960 because she hated him and found him irritating.
   
   Howard's mother died of cancer when he was five. This death may well have contributed to Howard's less than stellar behavior as a child. Also likely impacting Howard's behavior was his father, Rod, who was a cold, sometimes cruel, man.
   
   In the years before his lobotomy, Howard seems to have been rather slovenly and a bit insensitive. The child probably just needed the love and affection that his parents wouldn't give him; instead, he got an ice pick in the brain. If Howard "needed" a lobotomy, so did the majority of the country.
   
   Actually performing the surgery was Walter Freeman. He performed some 2,500 (one source says 3,500) lobotomies from 1936-1967. It is a shameful reflection on the medical community/the government/society that Freeman could slice brains for so long.
   
   Many of Freeman's patients (the book indicates fifteen percent) died as a result of the operation. Many survived as "vegetables." Others lived out their lives in a passive state, not "vegetables," but unable to survive independently. Many showed no long-range change in the behavior that had led to the lobotomy. Enough showed improvement in their (usually depressed or aggressive) behavior to lend credibility to the procedure.
   
   The lobotomy severs the connection between the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain. This seems to block the development of strong emotions that can lead to depression, defiance, and aggression.
   
   After the operation, Howard drifted about for decades. During his teen years, Lou did not want him in the family home, so he went from institution to institution. The experts who examined him agreed that he was "normal." But there seemed to be no other place for him. He later moved from job to job, and lived for long stretches on small welfare checks. He shacked up with various women. He drank heavily and used drugs. He wrote bad checks for flop-around money. Once after he was busted for bad checks the police gave him a choice: get admitted to an institution for the insane or go to jail.
   
   Friends and family (never Lou) helped him from time to time. His father maintained contact and occasionally helped.
   
   Howard finally pulled himself together in his forties. He got an associate degree and started driving buses. He got married and settled down. In the final chapter, Howard described an MRI examination of his brain in 2007 which showed the serious damage that Freeman had caused, but indicated that he was "lucky" to have been victimized at age twelve because his brain was still growing and the new growth helped to compensate for the lobotomy's damage. This likely is why Howard kept his personality and intellect intact.
   
   Howard attracted national attention in 2005 when he appeared on an NPR broadcast during which he interviewed other lobotomy victims, Freeman's sons, and, touchingly, his own father. Rod Dully refused to accept blame for his son's lobotomy, claiming that he was "manipulated" and tricked by Lou. But, in the end, Rod had approved the operation, although he had stated just days before that Howard was "normal."
   
   I think it was all summed up beautifully on page 270 of the paperback edition: "We are all the victims of what is done to us. We can either use that as an excuse for failure, knowing that if we fail it isn't really our fault, or we can say, 'I want something better than that, and I'm going to try to make myself a life worth living.'" Perhaps these are mostly the words of Charles Fleming, the former Newsweek correspondent who cowrote the book. If they are the words of Howard Duffy, it's a miracle.
   
   I highly recommend this book as an account of the lobotomy insanity. It also is an interesting memoir of a man with little ambition and virtually no direction living in semi-poverty at the mercy of come-what-may in the late twentieth century.



3. I, like thousands of other listeners, was spellbound by the November 14, 2005 broadcast of "My Lobotomy" on NPR's All Things Considered. Howard Dully's story about being mutilated by an unscrupulous lobotomist at the tender age of 12 was heart-wrenching and riveting. We were moved to tears by his story.
   
   Unaware that he had expanded his story into a book-length treatment, I immediately snapped it up last weekend when I ran across a copy at a local bookstore. The book however tells a slightly different story from the radio play.
   
   In the book Dully describes his run-ins with the law, his problems with alcohol and drugs and women, his homelessness, his self-destructiveness, his stints in mental hospitals and many of the shenanigans he pulled in the 30 years following his operation. He was most definitely not an angel, and the "untrustworthy narrator" leads the reader to conclude Dully used his victim status as an excuse for some pretty heinous living. His escapades are described in greater detail than the casual reader might expect -- or want. Eventually however he wraps up the story with his NPR interview and subsequent minor fame, and the impact of the radio piece is renewed when viewed from Howard's eyes.
   
   It's especially thought provoking to realize that, as only six years his junior, I too might have suffered the same fate as a hyperactive and frequently querulous youth. Howard's afterword asks how many kids today are being robbed of their childhood by chemical lobotomies such as Valium, Librium, Ativan and Serax simply because their overworked parents don't have enough time to devote to their children.
   
   Dully's writing can be a little literal and plodding, though co-author Charles Fleming does his best to make it a painless read. It reminds me quite a bit of Temple Grandin's books on autism, which were similar stories of overcoming personal obstacles to become a productive member of society.
   
   Five stars for Dully's brave concessions.



4. I've read practially nothing but memoir for the past twenty years and this one was exceptional. I suppose one shouldn't be admired for heroism that was beyond their control, but just the fact that Howard Dully survived his childhood is impressive enough. For him to grow up happy and have it together enough to write about his childhood ordeal is truly amazing. He is a survivor in every sense of the word. This is a very interesting book although it made me a little queasy in places, like in the descriptions of the lobotomy procedures. Howard's stepmother was like a wicked stepmother out of the worst fairy tale: She would do whatever it took to get rid of him and nothing was going to stop her. Shame on the awful doctor who performed unnecessary lobotomies on tens of thousands of innocent people for nothing more than his own self-aggrandizement. Unfortunately, Howard's father didn't have the gonads or fortitude to protect his child, and the result was a series of psychiatric interventions and hospitalizations of a child who might have been a little hyper or maybe had Asperger's but was in no way a menace to his family or society. Howard writes from the heart and he does a great job expressing his early pain and the challenges he endured as he struggled to get his life together in adulthood. If you like memoir I highly recommend this one.



5. I loved this book! I just cannot fathom that a young boy went through all of this. I am so happy Mr. Dully has a good life now.
   
   I found this book fascinating in many ways. Just the fact that a "doctor" could even think of doing an ice pick lobotomy baffles me!
   
   Go on Howard's journey through life to find out the answers on 'why' this happened. The reasons will shock you.
   
   I loved this book so much I have written a more in depth article review on this fascinating book on another site.
   
   Thank you Howard for sharing your story.