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A review by 24hourlibrary
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
4.0
Piecing together a month and change of a medical mystery through her own memories, videos from the hospital, medical records, interviews with loved ones, and her father's diary, journalist Susannah Cahalan recounts an experience of mental anguish and the cause behind it all.
Compelling and intimate, Cahalan lets readers into a rare scene, made rarer by the cause for her madness. As she recounts the days she marks as beginning her descent to psychotic behavior that alternated between mania and depression, Cahalan explores the nature of her state, disconnected from reality and beyond. As a medical memoir, the nitty-gritty of her story is often left to simplistic descriptions in favor of the emotional story of the memoir. Cahalan also writes with frequent humbleness, noting the sacrifices her family and other loved ones made for her during her harrowing experience and the suffering they encountered as they not only worried for her but faced the accusatory and often cruel turns of her paranoia and disdain driven by her temporary mental illness. With Cahalan's background in journalism, she has a natural advantage with writing. Her prose is generally clear and effective, though occasional timeline jumps can make the big picture a little confusing. Regardless, the fascinating narrative and Cahalan's emotional journey (and that of her loved ones) makes this compulsively digestible and easy to get stuck on for a day or two.
Compelling and intimate, Cahalan lets readers into a rare scene, made rarer by the cause for her madness. As she recounts the days she marks as beginning her descent to psychotic behavior that alternated between mania and depression, Cahalan explores the nature of her state, disconnected from reality and beyond. As a medical memoir, the nitty-gritty of her story is often left to simplistic descriptions in favor of the emotional story of the memoir. Cahalan also writes with frequent humbleness, noting the sacrifices her family and other loved ones made for her during her harrowing experience and the suffering they encountered as they not only worried for her but faced the accusatory and often cruel turns of her paranoia and disdain driven by her temporary mental illness. With Cahalan's background in journalism, she has a natural advantage with writing. Her prose is generally clear and effective, though occasional timeline jumps can make the big picture a little confusing. Regardless, the fascinating narrative and Cahalan's emotional journey (and that of her loved ones) makes this compulsively digestible and easy to get stuck on for a day or two.