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9780452295612

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Lovelace's poetic prose is both matter-of-fact and haunted, capturing the unpredictable rhythms of mental illness: 'Alone in the bathroom I made a smile in the mirror and it strangled my eyes.' Readers will get a real sense of the interior world of a single patient, and a family, on the verge of a mental breakdown. Publishers Weekly (starred review) [Lovelace s] book s major strength is its language, which beautifully mimics his bipolarity. When Lovelace chronicles a manic episode, the prose comes in breathless, eloquent bursts; when he describes crushing depression, it s as though all the air is being sucked out of the room. Kirkus Reviews Poet and bookseller Lovelace's humorous and harrowing first memoir follows his gentle, loving mother's, his eccentric preacher father's, his younger brother's, and his own descent into bipolar disorder. It's a coming-of-age story of an entire family; how parents and siblings are affected by both their own and each other's bipolarity. Marked by otherness simply by being the evangelical preacher's son, Lovelace also had to cope with his role as the family's caretaker, which he managed with grace even though he grew up with only marginal stability. No one in the family lacks love for one another, and that's what makes this story so poignant. Elizabeth Brinkley, School Library Journal

As a twenty-something in the 1980s, Lovelace discovered that he had bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic-depression), a shattering mental illness shared by both his parents and, they would find later, his younger brother. Growing up, his parents went largely undiagnosedahis motheras initial breakdown was in 1949, the days when apsychiatrists diagnosed almost all delusional illness as schizophrenia, a and the only treatment was electroshock. Members of his family spent years in deep, undiagnosed suffering, largely from depression (aDenial wasnat difficult, not yet. No one in my family had experienced maniaa), and Lovelace spent years running from his illness through Mexico, South America and later to New York, accompanied by drugs and alcohol: aI've denied my own illness and I've loved it almost to death.a Lovelace's poetic prose is both matter-of-fact and haunted, capturing the unpredictable rhythms of mental illness: aAlone in the bathroom I made a smile in the mirror and it strangled my eyes.a Readers will get a real sense of the interior world of a single patient, and a family, on the verge of a mental breakdown.<br> a Publisheras Weekly starred review

Author Information

David Lovelace is a writer, carpenter, and former owner of the Montague Bookmill, a bookstore near Amherst, Massachusetts. His poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has won mention in Patterson Review’s Allen Ginsberg Award.

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