10-20-14 The first review of RESILIENCE, the memoir that I helped Jessie Close write, has appeared and it’s complimentary.
The reviewer calls the book, “an honest tale” and notes that Jessie “holds nothing back.”
“The author candidly discusses her multiple marriages and her continued inability to understand her alternating manic and depressive states, which appear to have escalated in intensity with age. It was only when her son, Calen, was hospitalized and eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia that Close began to look more seriously at her own extreme mood cycles and seek permanent help to stop her abusive drinking and to silence the voice in her head that insisted she kill herself. With the help of her sister and family, Close was able to afford good treatment for herself and her son, and Close’s sister went on to establish the nonprofit organization Bring Change 2 Mind, which targets the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding mental disorders.
The critic concludes, “the book is packed with emotion and courageous personal reflections.”
That’s heady praise from a critic whose job is, well, to criticize. But the review did contain one tiny barb.
