Hurry Down Sunshine

Book: Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father's Story of Love and Madness
Author: Micheal Greenberg

Grade: B+

A harrowing account of a father's journey into the depths of his daughter's psychosis. "Hurry Down Sunshine" delves into a dark underworld that few are forced to navigate. Beginning with his daughter's first psychotic break at age 15, "Hurry Down Sunshine" movingly takes the reader through the stages of a parent's coming to terms with a child's sickness. What moves this book from interesting into beautiful is the weaving of all the lives upended by this illness into one moving storyline. Greenberg does an incredible job at adeptly relating the ripple effect invariably created in these situations. Mental illness could be described as a tornado roaring through the lives of everyone in it's immediate vicinity and Greenberg powerfully relays his experience with this. Watching Greenberg move from blaming himself, to blaming those around him and the environment before coming to peace with the fact that this is a chemical imbalance (stemming from no one's shortcomings) is fascinating. At it's core,

"Hurry Down Sunshine" is the story of a family almost torn apart by the incredibly destructive force of mental illness before learning how to start putting their lives back together, piece by piece.

I was riveted from beginning to end. This should be required reading for parents and family members of those who are suffering at the hands of mental illness. I know i will recommend this to all those I care for in my life.