A review by padigrumae
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.25

I really appreciate Meg Kissinger’s voice and ability to tell the story of her family. Parts of it made me laugh and parts of it made me cry. I think her capacity to recount the moments of her and her family’s lives that were so full and so difficult are a really welcome look at what it is like to grow up in a family where many suffer from various mental illnesses. It is especially poignant in the way it relates the love and trauma that go hand in hand, and how as much as we want things to be black and white, they tend to be many shades of complex grey. Though tragic, it is also a story of hope and an invitation to choosing to love instead of hide.