leanne_fornelli_pepitone 's review for:

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

3.0

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This book promises to take you inside the mind of this American family, but that’s not quite what it accomplishes. For a different reader, this book might be five stars. Clearly, an extraordinary amount of research went into schizophrenia and how this baffling illness affected an American family of fourteen (!!!). This research, albeit impressive, translated into a ton of clinical discussion as the author explains how the medical understanding of schizophrenia has evolved, or rather has failed to do so. I, however, was more interested in how schizophrenia affected the family dynamic between each other and the interpersonal relationships. These parts of the book riveted me, whereas half the book had my attention wandering.