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An NPR Great Read: This novel about bipolar disorder and one man’s journey through the world is a “convincing portrait of mental illness” (Entertainment Weekly). This tour-de-force novel takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd—a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter for a decade to travel the globe, finally giving free rein to the bipolar disorder he’s been forced to keep hidden for almost twenty years. The story intricately weaves together three timelines—Greyson’s wanderings to Rome, to Israel, to Santiago, to Thailand, to Uganda; the progressive unraveling of his own father as seen through Greyson’s childhood memories; and the intricacies and estrangements of his marriage—all of which unfolds in a narrative spanning twelve thirty-second electroshock treatments in a New York psychiatric ward.
Reviews with the most likes.
I couldn't do it, I couldn't get into this book. First, the good: the details the author puts into the telling of the story which seems like a memoir more than of fiction are exquisite. The narrator of the book from Audible reminded me of David Sedaris, but the story, instead of being funny, was horrible, the main character, vile, leading to cognitive dissonance. I couldn't get past that and gave up getting through the book, there's better books out there for me.