Hurry Down Sunshine

This is an interesting story about Michael Greenberg's daughter, Sally, who one day out of the blue just goes crazy. It tells how he and his wife, Pat, his ex-wife and his family and friends dealt with it. Primarily it is about Sally and her story. I found it interesting how different people dealt with this. I got into this book right away and enjoyed it. I recommend it and think you will enjoy it too. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Greenberg.

"Hurry Down Sunshine", written by a father about his 15-year-old daughter's first bought with mania, is as much about his and his family's reactions to her struggle as it is about the condition itself. Told in a prosaic style, Michael Greenberg deals with the subject with utter honesty and absolute authenticity, sharing his confusion and pain as a father side-by-side with the anguish of someone whose darkest nightmare is coming true. Event though Greenberg is caring for his mentally ill brother, who is going through some difficulties of his own around this time, he was still completely unprepared for his daughter's illness.

Greenberg's writing is superb; although dealing with a poignant subject, the book never falls into self-pity, self-justification or sentimentality. The work leaves the reader with a great deal to think about as well as a hunger for more from Michael Greenberg.

I would recommend this to any reader interested in understanding what mental illness extracts from a caregiver or those close to the sufferer.

This was a great book! I highly recommend it! Have fun!
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Merry Christmas!!!

Michael Greenberg's memoir of the summer of 1996 describes the months that his daughter was dealing with manic psychosis and was diagnosed as "bipolar 1." It's much more a book about his reactions to her illness, as well as that of his brother and negotiating between his wife and his ex-wife than it is about Sally's actual illness, but it's the book that he's most qualified to write; he wasn't in her head, so he can't say exactly what she was feeling at the time. It's a unique experience that's well-worth the read, and it's a very quick book that's hard to put down.

I don't usually read memoirs, but this was an absolutely fascinating read. Within the narrative of his daughter's psychotic break, Greenberg delves into the mysteries of madness, pondering famous--and genious--historic figures who wavered between creative brilliance and complete psychosis.

This book gave me an intimate view of what it is like during a manic episode, and shows the thin line between sane and insane. Almost as stunning as the daughter's "crack up" is Greenberg's own struggle to cope with his daughter's madness, desperately trying to believe that is was drugs, which would wear off, instead of and organic disease in her brain.

Greenberg's prose flows smoothly. This book was difficult to put down. It will give me much food for thought for a long time.