Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg

I like to think that is compassion and not a macabre desire to watch personal car wrecks that brings me to read so many books on mental illness. Unlike books by Caroline Knapp and Elizabeth Wurtzel, Hurry Down Sunshine chronicles the onset of mental illness from the point of view of the patient's father. I expected this to be similarly enlightening as The Addict, which was told from the doctor's point of view, but instead found it to be more complex. In retrospect, that makes sense - Dr. Stein's book is about his career, about experience and treatment. Greenberg's story is no more personal than Stein's, but it is the first time he is going through any of this so it is raw in a way The Addict is not.

Simply, Greenberg's daughter Sally has her first manic episode as a teenager with few warning signs. One day she is a creative, offbeat kid, and the next she is hurriedly brought to the ER and then hospitalized for what is later diagnosed as bipolar disorder. He chronicles Sally's fight back to health over her summer vacation from school. He touches on his relationship with both his wife and his ex-wife, both of whom play prominent roles in her recovery. Also in his narrative are interactions with his brother, also suffering from mental illness.

I was surprised by what seemed like an unsophisticated approach toward his daughter's healthcare. Perhaps it was the combination of the author's last name coupled with the New York setting, but I expected the neurotic Jewish approach to illness that I grew up with: find the best doctor possible, then agonize endlessly about his credentials and treatment, culminating in aggressive doubt and hushed second and third opinions. Instead, Greenberg entrusts Sally to an inpatient facility he knows nothing about, then enrolls her in an outpatient program he knows nothing about. I empathize with Greenberg's being grateful for whatever he can find with immediacy that helps her. In every way, he clearly desired the best path towards healing for Sally - I was just caught off-guard by an aspect of the narrative I expected to read about just not existing in his experience.

In other places, I was frustrated by parts of the story I wanted to know more about that he left out. For example, there was a short section on his lack of healthcare but he does not return to discuss the particulars of how he addresses Sally's illness financially. I suppose there is a relationship between the author and the reader where he balances what he wants to tell me with what I want to read. But typically with memoirs I am more aligned with the author than I was here. Perhaps that is indicative of this being a (generous and brave!) therapeutic activity for Greenberg. Or perhaps it is my expectation of a familiar narrative not being fulfilled.

That aside, this book was fascinatingly honest. I am appreciative of Greenberg's openness in sharing his story.