The book was mixed bag for me. The book is the author's journey of discovering that his daughter is bipolar (or schizophrenic, it's not clear. He says "she was initially diagnosed with bipolar I". Then talks about bipolar I, Virginia Woolf, etc. The "initially" part made me think the diagnosis might eventually change, but it doesn't look like it did? I'm not 100% sure).
The book is purely from his prospective. How he felt, what he thought, how it affected his work, relationships, health etc. The writing style is interesting. It's a mix of fiction style telling of non-fictional story. It might be a common thing in memoirs. I don't read a lot of those type of books. I initially found the descriptions engaging and interesting. I thought they were helping me feel for him and understand what it feels like to have a loved one fall ill with something like bipolar or schizophrenia.
I thought the book was ok. The start of the book was stronger than the end. Perhaps it was the emotional heaviness of the first half compared to the general "lets figure this out" type thing in the second half. As I mentioned there was a lot of random tangents about his life in general like his relationship with Sally's mother, his current wife, how they met, who they are, a book he's editing or writing or whatever. I appreciated some tangents more than others. Some were exceptionally dull though. I understand that it's someone's account of their experience, but it made for a confusing read. Often I'd wonder "why am I reading this part exactly?"
This is the first book in my schizophrenia book research project. I wanted to read some books that present the topic from a personal angle of dealing with the disease before reading some about the current scientific understanding of the disease.
Finally, I did read some of the criticism this book gets on goodreads and amazon. A significant part of the criticism is targeted at the seemingly self-absorbed nature of the writing. I mean here is a man who just learned about his daughter getting a life altering medical diagnosis and all the book is about his feelings and his (or sometimes his wife's or ex-wife's) reaction and comment. Rarely that of Sally's or how she is feeling. While I might understand where the original feeling might come from, you quickly realize it doesn't make sense. We never really fully understand Sally's condition. Maybe it's my lack of knowledge or experience, but it's possible that Sally wasn't really in the position to have anything particularly insightful or relevant to a book about how a family is dealing with the situation. Sadly, I think sever mental illness is one of those concepts that tests the limits of our understanding of our own humanity. Despite Sally being the one with the disease, the ones affected by it are her loved ones, not her. I think.