The Glass Castle meets An Unquiet Mind in a mesmerizing, loving memoir about growing up in a family plagued by bipolar disorder.
Four out of the five people in poet David Lovelace’s immediate family have experienced bipolar disorder—including David himself. His relationship with the disease began with his artist mother’s severe depressions during his boyhood in the 1960s and continued through decades of his preacher father’s increasingly eccentric behavior. The family’s battle with the disorder reached its apex in 1986, the year that his father, his brother, and David himself were all committed in quick succession. Only his sister has escaped unscathed.
Scattershot is Lovelace’s poignant, humorous, and vivid account of the disease’s effects on his family, and his gripping exploits as he spent his life running from—and finally learning to embrace—the madness imprinted on his genes. Scattershot explores the powerful connections between fundamentalist religious belief and mental illness, illuminated by David’s strange and fantastic childhood in church camps and parish residences.
A coming-of-age story punctuated by a series of truly harrowing experiences, this devastating and empathetic portrait of the Lovelace family strips away the shame associated with bipolar disorder and celebrates the profound creative gifts that come with it.
I was trying to explain to my daughter what makes this such an amazing book. There are just so many things. The whole thing is laced with poetic language. The cadence is magical. And I was struck by how brilliantly organized it is. Amid his personal storytelling Lovelace gives historic background and scientific stats and info on the Bipolar condition in a seamless manner. And, the story just keeps going. Some of the scenes are just waiting for the Big Screen. I really could not put it down!
While Scattershot focuses on the heartbreaking story of a family struggling with Bipolar disorder, this is not some pity piece - Lovelace tells the story with sensitivity but no sugar coat, showing everyone's weaknesses and heroism. I feel like I started to understand the reality of being "crazy" at times and knowing it, along with the strange allure of the manic state. Told with humor and a poet's touch, Scattershot is readable - as well as sad, happy, and revealing.
The beginning in some memoirs can be drudgery , waiting for momemtum, but not so with this! I was intrigued immediately, and finished this in two nights. Some of my favorite scenes are in the waiting room, and the MAYBE HYPO manic, and the tender way he described his parents marraige. The 'lost friendhips' brought a sense of sadness for me. Teh role of art in their lives was really well written and interesting to me. I like the way his father was atheist , at one time,and what a burden the ever present ' dogmatic stabilzer' was in their environment. I empathized wholeheartedly with the synapse between being present for his children and wife and being 'stimulated' or clincially euphoric and ' grandiose'.
My best read since The Tender Bar and an Unquiet Mind.
