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Hurry Down Sunshine | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Greenberg
Publisher: Other Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $12.76
You Save: $9.24 (42%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 545
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 1590511913
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.1968950092
EAN: 9781590511916
ASIN: 1590511913
Publication Date: September 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081119222050T
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Michael Greenberg's spare, unflinching memoir begins with a bang: "On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad." Hurry Down Sunshine chronicles the summer when fifteen-year-old Sally experienced her first full-blown manic episodean event that in a "single stroke" changed her identity and, by extension, that of her entire family. Simply told and beautifully written, Greenberg's memoir shines a stark light on mental illness, painting a vivid picture of a brain and body under siegemania as a separate living thing squatting within the patient. As a writer who lives "so much in his head," Greenberg is particularly anguished by his daughter's fractured psyche, and his honesty about being both sickened and fascinated by his daughter's condition is breathtaking: "During the worst moments, I think of her as my diseasethe disease I must bear...I am intoxicated with Sally's madness in both senses of the word: inebriated and poisoned." So desperate is he to understand her, that he relentlessly researches mental illness (the book is peppered with fascinating insights into drug therapy and anecdotes about writers who struggled with madness), and even goes so far as to sample a full dose of his daughter's medication. Startling, heart-wrenching, and yet unwaveringly unsentimental, Hurry Down Sunshine is an unforgettable story of a young girl's descent into madness, told through the eyes of a harried and helpless father trying desperately to bring her back. --Daphne Durham
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
Haunting and Hopeful November 11, 2008
Michael Greenberg's memoir of the summer of 1996 describes the months that his daughter was dealing with manic psychosis and was diagnosed as "bipolar 1." It's much more a book about his reactions to her illness, as well as that of his brother and negotiating between his wife and his ex-wife than it is about Sally's actual illness, but it's the book that he's most qualified to write; he wasn't in her head, so he can't say exactly what she was feeling at the time. It's a unique experience that's well-worth the read, and it's a very quick book that's hard to put down.
 prophet or psychotic? October 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't usually read memoirs, but this was an absolutely fascinating read. Within the narrative of his daughter's psychotic break, Greenberg delves into the mysteries of madness, pondering famous--and genious--historic figures who wavered between creative brilliance and complete psychosis.
This book gave me an intimate view of what it is like during a manic episode, and shows the thin line between sane and insane. Almost as stunning as the daughter's "crack up" is Greenberg's own struggle to cope with his daughter's madness, desperately trying to believe that is was drugs, which would wear off, instead of and organic disease in her brain.
Greenberg's prose flows smoothly. This book was difficult to put down. It will give me much food for thought for a long time.
I was hesitant but... October 24, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As someone with Bipolar Disorder, I was hesitant to pick up this memoir. Some recent memoirs have tried to entertain with silly, cartoonish characters as fellow inpatients; and with those too too happy endings.
I couldn't put this book down BECAUSE it was fresh and true. Bipolar disorder isn't easy, all those plans made when you were a brilliant scholar at 18 don't always come true, but you can make a life for yourself.
Sally had a wonderful Therapist/Psyciatrist which is a blessing. You need to do the work, to learn those thoughts that will get you through each day. I, too, was unable to take Lithium which is the only inexpensive Bipolar drug out there, and the cost of prescriptions, even with a co-pay, can be stress inducing; and make medication compliance difficult. All of these things were covered in this wonderful book. But the ending was what I loved the most, you don't have to be the Prize winning Poet or the Supreme Court Justice that everyone thought you would be, But you CAN still have a quiet, delicate, life worth living.
Wonderful October 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wonderfully and poignantly written. I've already read and lent it out to friends to also enjoy it. I highly recommend it.
 very informative October 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love how much research he did for the book. It is like an artistic, crazy history lesson. The mind is powerful and fascinating!
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