Mark VonnegutRecensioni

Excellent description of psychiatric disorders and treatment of such from inside the disease. The author was able to write in depth about the experience when many would give up.
The fact that the author is son of Kurt Vonnegut is minimal, but it probably would not have been published otherwise.
Though he was initially diagnosed as schizophrenic, it has been determined since that he probably suffered from severe bi-polar disorder.

A real disappointment. Over the years, Vonnegut has become less committed to writing, and it shows. A lot of family stuff is alluded to without being detailed and dramatized, leaving huge swaths of emotional territory flat and featureless. Side trips into extracurricular sports, illegal fishing, and casual mycology might be nice for color in a memoir where the characters and through line were better defined, but here they seem like padding. Fragments are frequently placed almost at random, as though they were notes for sections never written. It's a quick and genial read--Vonnegut's good company--but his book lacks force and insight. I seriously doubt someone as smart, capable, and long-lived hasn't peered deeply into himself, but he doesn't really want to tell us about it.

Very interesting, sometimes disjointed account of Vonnegut's life with mental illness. You get some family history, some descriptions of what it's like to go crazy, and actually a lot of discussion about the horrible state of medical care in this country. Vonnegut goes to Harvard Medical school after a hospitalization for schizophrenia (although he points out that now he'd be diagnosed as bipolar) and he becomes a top pediatrician. He also deals with alcoholism, his father's death, more breakdowns, and a failed marriage.

Mark Vonnegut, son of the famous writer and self-described hippie, recounts his experience after college of starting a hippie commune in Vancouver and having a mental breakdown, for which he is eventually hospitalized.

I would never have heard of this book except that it turned up on my library book discussion list. It was published in 1975, just a few years after the events described in the book, which goes from about 1969-72. Mark writes about that time period, hippie culture, and his own experience with mental illness with a unique perspective. When he first starts having episodes of hallucinations and detachment from the world, it's hard to piece out how much is reality, his illness, or the drugs (mostly pot, but mescaline too) - an intentional choice that reminded me of Challenger Deep with its dreamlike and muddled quality showing that confused state of mind. I'm glad our book club brought it to my attention, and I'm interested in following up with Mark's more recent memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness, Only More So.

Not interested in father Kurt.  Not interested in Mark's implication that I beat the demon because I was determined to do so, and you can, too."  Not interested in generalizations like "You" and "We" and "People" and "America."  This book helps me understand neither myself, nor my son, nor others I know who have challenges, not one whit more."

Vonnegut humor. Dry, tells it like it is - a struggle with mental illness and how things sometimes work out, sometimes they don't. An entertaining read.

Around 1970 soon after finishing college, Mark Vonnegut and assorted college friends left the East for British Columbia to fulfill a dream of living off the land, the classic hippie fantasy. They find a beautiful isolated (12 mile boat ride) farm for sale cheap near Powell River and set up camp, working like demons repairing the house, clearing and planting a garden, getting goats.... All seems to be going brilliantly, when Mark succumbs to a full blown psychotic episode. I vaguely remember hearing about The Eden Express years ago; it would come up sometimes when discussing people who never fully recovered from tripping - people who, I see now, had a vulnerability and might well have with other stresses succumbed to an episode without any drugs. His friends tried their best to cope, the ethic of the day obliged them to, but at last he was committed in Vancouver. Back then Mark was diagnosed as schizophrenic, now he has been diagnosed as bipoloar and while neither is desirable, the latter is a preferable diagnosis, as the long-term prognosis is better. Among the many strengths of the memoir, Mark's 'voice' and his uncompromising description of what he can recall of what was going on in his head that year, as he first moved to B.C., and slowly but steadily went downhill under the pressure of 'doing it right', from what is recognizable now as a steady manic high that was sustaining him at first to a dissociative state in which he would be sure those he loved were dead, the world was coming to an end....(culminating in 'blanks' of which he remembers nothing). It is clear that a good deal of the time Mark had a strong awareness of what was happening and some realization that he needed help. He is wonderfully candid and sometimes very funny about his own weaknesses. Another strength and a hugely important one is Mark's articulation of the absolute sincerity of those who made the effort he and his friends did to become self-sufficient, to stop harming others and the earth, to find a new way to live, and that many, like him, who threw themselves entirely into this effort emerged wiser, yes, but also scarred. ****

I think this is the best book about someone in recovery from mental illness that I ever read. It gives a good picture of a person who is functioning but is still a bit off. It gives me hope that there is recovery after mental illness, even if there isn't full return to life before psychosis.

choppy finish but a good read overall

I do believe one needs to be able to laugh at oneself and Mark does this at some of the tougher times in his life. I am not sure this book really helped me to understand what it means to be mentally unstable, but I do know it gave me insight into how art plays a part in the lives of creative people. Another of those 3.75 ratings!

In the interval between The Eden Express and the present memoir, Vonnegut's diagnosis has shifted from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder. This isn't surprising for two reasons: 1) He responded well to lithium, which today we generally understand as tipping the scales toward a bipolar diagnosis; and 2) schizophrenia is a garbage category for a lot of disorders that include psychosis (and in my opinion, may not be etiologically related). These days, there's a lot less hebephrenic schizophrenia and a lot more bipolar II.

The Eden Express makes more sense as a narrative of manic and depressive episodes (leavened with a plethora of recreational substances). It's wild, fast, roller coaster-like. The author is not in consensual reality for much of the story. By contrast, Just like Someone Without Mental Illness Only Moreso is a normalized book, slower and perhaps less interesting, although the contrast over time is fascinating. Read the two together as a really good look at how disruptive unchecked bipolar disorder can be.

I'm glad to see that this is back in print. I'm not sure that the diagnosis of schizophrenia is accurate (I lean more toward bipolar disorder with a hefty dose of illicit substances to muddy the waters), but it's still an excellent memoir.

I only got partway through the first chapter and then decided this was not the book for me right now. The author really, REALLY rambles. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the order of the short anecdotes. The writing itself is actually beautiful, but I wanted something with more structure right now. I might come back to this later. Some pieces I liked from the little bit I read: p. xii "None of us are entirely well, and none of us are irrecoverably sick. At my best I have islands of being sick. At my worst I had islands of being well." p. 4 "Art is lunging forward without certainty about where you are going or how to get there, being open to and dependent on what luck, the paint, the typo, the dissonance give you."

A fascinating look at life lived successfully despite mental illness.

Part memoir of growing up with an unconventional family, part criticism of the modern healthcare industry, part insight into living with mental illness, Mark Vonnegut's Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is a fascinating read. The narrative reads like a bipolar brain might think - disjointed, non-linear, without transitions. The result is a quick, bumpy, jaunt through Dr. Vonnegut's life. What's most striking is that other than his polymathic tendencies, his famous family, and his psychotic breaks, Mark is pretty much a regular guy with the problems and issues many of us face. And, really, I think that's the take home message.½

I was intensely interested in reading Just Like Someone without Mental Illness Only More So for a couple of different reasons. The first one is that it’s by the son of Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors. The second is that the premise of the book is that he discusses what it’s like to be both a successful doctor and a person with bipolar disorder. I liked his description of how his life unfolded and appreciated his insight into his life as a whole. I’ve not read his fiction, but I would say that his ability to show the reader what it is like to have a mental disorder while maintaining a successful and functional (for the most part) lifestyle shows there might be a familial tie for writing talent.

Full review: http://libwen.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/just-like-someone-without-mental-illness-...

I wish I liked this book more. Vonnegut's message, humility, and wisdom are worth the experience, but the way he jumps around detracts from his story.

Great great memoir. Open, honest, not a bit of whining or self-importance. Great read. Amazing guy.

A very disappointing book. I believe he may have written of his mental illness elsewhere, but his story is one that could be facinating if told in detail, but he glides over his illness and relationship with his father, which could be interesting as well as enlightning. And,yes, he would never have gotten into Harvard Med without his last name, although the fact he was able to, and become a Pediatrician is a great and uplifting story, if he would only tell it.

I don't know about this book or this guy. I kept having the uncharitable feeling that it wouldn't have gotten published and he wouldn't have gotten into medical school if he weren't Kurt Vonnegut's son, and that colored my enjoyment of the book. It felt recycled somehow, disjointed, and a bit distant.½

It was with a trace of fear that I began reading ‘Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So’ by Mark Vonnegut. I was afraid of what I would uncover or the author would reveal.

Besides outright dysfunction, mental illness lies in my family’s background...and not too deeply back. Even with more public acknowledgement and open discussion of mental illness, I found I still fear the stigma of mental illness claiming a place in my family history.

Vonnegut speaks core truths on the topic of medical care - cost, application, doctor/patient/vendor/insurance relationships; with tacit deals between drug companies, sales reps, and doctors sometimes more a prescription determinant than the illness itself. I related to perhaps more of his observations than I felt healthy - among them, of trying not to take up to much air or leaving as few footprints as possible in life. This deeply moving, insightful book is written with wry humor, sadness, and a desire to do no harm in its revelations. The author writes frankly about his birth family (son of Kurt and Jane Vonnegut) and his relationships with his wives and son. I appreciate the trust he offers the reader.

Invisible people and hidden compartments of life - Vonnegut’s writing comes across as bull’s-eye direct. He peels away layer after layer of truth and insight for the mentally healthy as well as the mentally ill, and those who teeter in between. Each time I returned to the book, it was with some trepidation; each time I closed its covers, it was with some new insight and strength.

sage holben 12/27/2010

There are certain books you read during your life that stick with you. For me, one of those is one I first read while still in college, Mark Vonnegut's The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity. First published in 1975 (and reissued in 2002), the book is a frank and compelling story of a young man's descent into schizophrenia and his recovery from it.

In the introduction to that book, Vonnegut, the son of author Kurt Vonnegut, described himself as "a hippie, a son of a counterculture hero, a B.A. in religion [with a] a genetic biochemical predisposition to schizophrenia." He and friends established a commune in a remote area of British Columbia but the mysticism he sensed he was experiencing led in 1971 to his hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital in Vancouver for what was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. Eden Express details that journey, two subsequent hospitalizations and his efforts toward recovery.

Although Vonnegut has since come to believe what he really suffered from was a combination of what is now know as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, his recovery has been equally remarkable. Not only did he return to "normal" life, he attended Harvard Medical School and has been a practicing pediatrician in the Boston area sine the early 1980s. With his follow-up memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So, he takes takes readers on that journey -- and his fourth psychiatric breakdown "when the voices came back" more than 14 years after his last breakdown.

As a fan of Eden Express, I must admit I approached Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So with a bit of trepidation. I didn't want anything to take away my favorable impression of the first book (although rereading it before the new book arguably have increased that risk). Yet the new book drew me in as much as the first and I found it just as compelling. Not only does Vonnegut he again provide insight into the lives of those who confront mental illnesses, the book gives us a real glimpse of the type of person and doctor he is, his bout with alcoholism, and a look at how the practice of medicine has changed in the last 25 years. ("Every bright idea that was supposed to improve medical care has made care worse, usually by increasing costs and restricting access.")

Eden Express was marked by its frank yet conversational tone. A similar approach helps make Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So as good as the predecessor. The two books, though, are different. The new one break the story into smaller segments as opposed to lengthier chapters. It also has more echoes of his father's style and wit. For example, if he's been doing so well, why does he continue to see a psychiatrist? His response is a simple, Vonnegutesque one: "Over the years I've come to care about Ned and, and I think I go mostly to make sure he's okay." Or, he notes at one point, "I have so many original thoughts I have to take medication for it."

This approach enhances the readability of a story that gives an idea of the life of a "regular" person dealing with existing or quiescent mental illness and how easy it can be to slip into a manic-depressive or schizophrenic state.

Still, Vonnegut never suggests he possesses some unique quality or strength that gave him advantages in recovering.

None of us are entirely well, and none of us are irrevocably sick. At my best I have islands of being sick entirely. At my worst I had islands of being well. Except for a reluctance to give up on myself there isn't anything I can claim credit for that helped me recover from my breaks. Even that doesn't count. You either have or don't have a reluctance to give up on yourself. It helps a lot if others don't give up on you.

Yet even that doesn't ensure there will never be recurrences. In fact, Vonnegut's fourth breakdown found him taken by police from his home in a straitjacket when he tried, unsuccessfully, to run through a third-floor window to prove to God that he was worthy of saving and "not just a selfish little shit." Vonnegut says that when the voices he heard in the early 1970s came back, "it was like we picked up in the middle of a conversation that had been interrupted just a few minutes earlier." The manic part of his bipolar disorder manic depression makes it that much more difficult. Vonnegut describes the slide into mental illness as a "grammatical shift. Thoughts come into the mind as firmly established truth. ... The fantastic presents itself as fact."

Once again, though, the hospitalization, together with medication and support, allowed Vonnegut to return to a normal life, including the practice of medicine. He forthrightly examines not only the role of medication but the treatment he underwent in the 1970s and explores the extent to which family heredity can play a role in a person's psychiatric state.

Fortunately, Vonnegut did not just return to the practice of medicine but also to memoir. Taken together, Eden Express and Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So are an excellent survey of a life affected by mental illness. Yet with its style, tone and frank manner of addressing serious issues and events, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So earns a place on anyone's bookshelf on its own merits. It is the most insightful and enjoyable memoir I've read in a long time.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)

Very quick read mental illness memoir. Unfortunately, there isn't much to set it apart from the pack.

If your child were sick, would you choose a 60+-year old pediatrician who is a former commune-starting hippie, is the son of a famous author, came from a somewhat dysfunctional childhood, got into Harvard Medical School despite poor grades, and most important of all, is certifiably crazy? I think I would. I believe that if I were to meet him, I would really like and trust this guy.

Mark Vonnegut first wrote about his battle with mental illness in a 1975 book, The Eden Express. This followup came many years and one additional psychotic episode later. Although this is less autobiographical than his first book, the doctor is still very open about his life, about what happened to him in the intervening years, about living with mental illness, alcoholism, and a family where both seem to be hereditary trait . However, it is also about his thoughts on the current medical system in America, treating teenagers who have a drug habit, a little bit of philosophy, and a man who wants to be useful, normal. It is about what mental illness feels like from someone who knows.

The advance uncorrected proof that I read is a short and easy read at just over 200 pages. There are a few awkward sentences that may stay as they are or perhaps will be changed. Some of the quotes that stuck with me may change in the published edition.

Medical care has become a lot of crust and precious little pie.

I can pass for normal most of the time, but I understand perfectly why some of my autistic patients scream and flap their arms – it's to frighten off extroverts.

There are no people anywhere who don't have some mental illness. It all depends on where you set the bar and how hard you look. What is a myth is that we are mostly mentally well most of the time.

And this, which is one of the saddest sentences I've read:

At my most pathetic, when I felt lost and very sorry for myself, and was no longer in charge of making breakfast and packing lunches for my boys, I set up a bird feeder on the ledge of my apartment overlooking a parking lot and no birds came.

This is engaging read for anyone who would like a glimpse into the head of someone determined not to let the voices in his head win. And although it is not necessary, I was glad that I read[The Eden Express before I read this book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.