A review by acinthedc
The Hospital Suite by John Porcellino

3.0

Porcellino depicts a period of turmoil in his life. In the first piece he's sick, the doctors can't figure out what's wrong, and he ends up having surgery. As he recovers and moves from Denver to Chicago, his marriage falls apart. In the last piece, he dives into his mental health problems - generalized anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive tendencies. This latter piece is the strongest. Porcellino does a great job of relaying his experiences as a person with a mental illness. He describes the frustration of knowing he's not well, the inability to stop his compulsive behavior, and his repeated searches to get better through a variety of means - dietary, naturopathic, talk therapy, exposure response prevention therapy, and medication. The artwork is simple and the storytelling is straightforward. Overall, a compelling memoir. 3.5 out 5