Hurry Down Sunshine
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 by kate
Hurry Down Sunshine is a moving story of a father trying to face his daughter’s abrupt mental breakdown.
Author Michael Greenberg does not tip-toe around the subject as you can tell when you open to page one: “On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad.” Her transportation from a vital young woman to a possessed, feverish psych patient is sudden and drastic.
But Greenberg does not hide behind the cloak of fiction either – he tells his family’s story with the view of an insider but the voice of a cold, hard lens. You won’t find any sugar coating here. Not even when the stress builds up and explodes out of his hand onto his wife’s face. “I slap her face, a hard nasty snap … My head is roaring. The tensions of the summer seem to mass in me, and it is as if I am walking beside myself, hollow and enraged.”
From her acute psychotic attack on a playground, to her medicated stint in a psych ward, 15-year-old Sally has to learn to question everything she thinks is real. “I don’t trust my mind anymore. I don’t know when I’m being psychotic.”
At one point, Greenberg even swallows a full dose of his daughter’s medication in an attempt to feel what she feels. “The air feels watery and thick, until finally I am neck-deep in a swamp through which it is possible to move only with the greatest of effort, and then only a few feet at a time.”
Hurry Down Sunshine is about a father’s helplessness, a mysterious disease and a life that slaps you in the face when you least expect it – “a hard nasty snap.”
This isn’t a story with a happy ending. In fact, there is no ending. It gives an honest look at mental illness and refuses to package it up in a pretty bow. Sally’s struggle to anticipate bouts of psychosis is ongoing. “I’m trying to recognize when it’s coming on so I can get out of the way or at least drop to the ground like you would when caught in the crossfire of a shootout.”
Whether mental illness has touched you in some way or not, Hurry Down Sunshine is a gripping story you won't want to put down.
When Greenberg told his daughter he was writing a book about her, she simply replied, “I want you to use my real name.” Obviously brave honesty runs in the family.
Author Michael Greenberg does not tip-toe around the subject as you can tell when you open to page one: “On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad.” Her transportation from a vital young woman to a possessed, feverish psych patient is sudden and drastic.
But Greenberg does not hide behind the cloak of fiction either – he tells his family’s story with the view of an insider but the voice of a cold, hard lens. You won’t find any sugar coating here. Not even when the stress builds up and explodes out of his hand onto his wife’s face. “I slap her face, a hard nasty snap … My head is roaring. The tensions of the summer seem to mass in me, and it is as if I am walking beside myself, hollow and enraged.”From her acute psychotic attack on a playground, to her medicated stint in a psych ward, 15-year-old Sally has to learn to question everything she thinks is real. “I don’t trust my mind anymore. I don’t know when I’m being psychotic.”
At one point, Greenberg even swallows a full dose of his daughter’s medication in an attempt to feel what she feels. “The air feels watery and thick, until finally I am neck-deep in a swamp through which it is possible to move only with the greatest of effort, and then only a few feet at a time.”
Hurry Down Sunshine is about a father’s helplessness, a mysterious disease and a life that slaps you in the face when you least expect it – “a hard nasty snap.”
This isn’t a story with a happy ending. In fact, there is no ending. It gives an honest look at mental illness and refuses to package it up in a pretty bow. Sally’s struggle to anticipate bouts of psychosis is ongoing. “I’m trying to recognize when it’s coming on so I can get out of the way or at least drop to the ground like you would when caught in the crossfire of a shootout.”
Whether mental illness has touched you in some way or not, Hurry Down Sunshine is a gripping story you won't want to put down.
When Greenberg told his daughter he was writing a book about her, she simply replied, “I want you to use my real name.” Obviously brave honesty runs in the family.
Labels: Hurry Down Sunshine, mental illness, Michael Greenberg
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I’m a coffee addict with a book fetish. I dream of having a third hand so I can sip my double-tall nonfat-no-whip toffee nut latte and turn pages at the same time. Really neat book covers call to me. When I'm not working as an editor for Captivate Network, I'm scurrying around town, looking for fuel to feed my inner bookworm.
