Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood by Tanya Frank

1 review

epellicci's review

challenging sad medium-paced

4.0

 **Thank you to Harper Collins Publishing for an ARC of Zig-Zag Boy in return for an honest review**

Zig-zag Boy is the painfully honest story of a mother trying to understand her place in the world after a life-changing diagnosis for her son. At the age of 19, Zach suffers a psychotic break completely out of the blue. Almost overnight, he transforms from an outgoing, sporty, academic young man into a withdrawn and suspicious child, heavily reliant on Tanya Frank for his connection to the outside world.  

 

The slow development in Frank’s narration was what I enjoyed most about Zig-zag Boy. The book opens on the night of Zach’s first psychotic episode, and from those first pages, you feel the bewilderment and the fear of both Frank and her son. This becomes a steady desperation as the family go through the ups and downs of several diagnosis, treatment and therapeutic attempts, often experiencing fragile hope and crushing disappointments within pages of one another. Despite this – and the thing that came to strike me most about their story – Frank’s acceptance of Zach’s illness and her changing role as mother is always about hope, never resignation. My impression of her was always of an incredibly strong woman. There is a focus as the book develops on alternative medicine. I wasn’t surprised when traditional Western medical models, and schizophrenic/psychotic drugs weren’t the easy cure that Frank and her family were hoping for, but I was surprised by the early suspicion of “big pharma” that filters through the book. I would have liked to see Frank expand on some of these ideas and the conversations she was clearly having within support groups or with alternative therapists. I often felt like concepts were being left hanging in these sections – possibly due to a fear of how too much criticism of traditional treatment plans would be taken by readers. It would have been nice to see Frank develop her stance more within the book.  

 Despite this, I adored the mainly no-holds-bared narration. There is so much bravery in this book – both in the sense that as an author, Frank has truly invited readers into her world, but also as a family going through something so scary and transformative. While not easy reading, Zig-zag Boy is fascinating, and Frank’s honesty and heartache are a phenomenal show of solidarity to anyone struggling through this kind of world-altering experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Grief

Moderate: Forced institutionalization