Hurry Down Sunshine - Hardcover

Greenberg, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590511913 ISBN 13: 9781590511916

Publisher: Other Press (NY), 2008

Synopsis

HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE TELLS THE STORY OF THE extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg's daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally's visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city's most sweltering months. "I feel like I'm traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to," Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her-her brother and grandmother, her mother and stepmother, and, not least of all, the author himself. Among Greenberg's unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.

"The psychotic break of his fifteen-year-old daughter is the grit around which Michael Greenberg forms the pearl that is Hurry Down Sunshine. It is a brilliant, taut, entirely original study of a suffering child and a family and marriage under siege. I know of no other book about madness whose claim to scientific knowledge is so modest and whose artistic achievement is so great." - Janet Malcolm, author of The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes and The Journalist and the Murderer

"One of the most gripping and disturbingly honest books I have ever read. The courage Michael Greenberg shows in narrating the story of his adolescent daughter's descent into psychosis is matched by his acute understanding of how alone each of us, sane or manic, is in our processing of reality and our attempts to get others to appreciate what seems important to us. This is a remarkable memoir." - Phillip Lopate, author of Two Marriages and Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan

About this title

Review:

"Greenberg's elegiac, beautifully crafted memoir chronicles the summer his teenaged daughter, Sally, lost her mind to madness...Sure to become a new classic in the literature of mental illness." -"Library Journal *Starred Review*
""In this compelling memoir... [Greenberg] brilliantly renders daily life in a Manhattan psych ward inhabited by a manic professor, a mango-devouring flirt, and an Orthodox Jewish man whose family members interpret his madness as a sort of communication with God. He even takes a dose of his daughter's medication to try to understand her state of mind. The result is a startling piece of writing, by turns sobering and surreal."-"Booklist *Starred Review*
""Vivid... Bears enlightening and articulate witness to the sheer force of an oft-misunderstood disease." -"Kirkus Reviews
""In this well-written and sincere memoir, Greenberg proves to be a caring man trying to find his way through the minefield of a loved one's madness." -"Publishers Weekly
"

"[Hurry Down Sunshine] is about tenacity and tenderness, feeling helpless but being present, about cracking up, then finding the wherewithal to glue the jagged pieces of your mind back together again. But mostly it's about love." --Oprah Winfrey, in her letter to readers in O, The Oprah Magazine
"[Hurry Down Sunshine] is an excellent memoir--written by the father of a 15-year old daughter about her descent into psychosis, diagnosis with bipolar disorder, and the impact on their extended, blended family....Greenberg's description of life on a psychiatric ward is exceptional: marked by critical insight and occasionally dark humor." --NAMI Advocate
"Greenberg's elegiac, beautifully crafted memoir chronicles the summer his teenaged daughter, Sally, lost her mind to madness...Sure to become a new classic in the literature of mental illness." -"Library Journal *Starred Review*
""In this compelling memoir... [Greenberg] brilliantly renders daily life in a Manhattan psych ward inhabited by a manic professor, a mango-devouring flirt, and an Orthodox Jewish man whose family members interpret his madness as a sort of communication with God. He even takes a dose of his daughter's medication to try to understand her state of mind. The result is a startling piece of writing, by turns sobering and surreal."-"Booklist *Starred Review*
""Vivid... Bears enlightening and articulate witness to the sheer force of an oft-misunderstood disease." -"Kirkus Reviews
""In this well-written and sincere memoir, Greenberg proves to be a caring man trying to find his way through the minefield of a loved one's madness." -"Publishers Weekly
"

"In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind ....Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul--a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through." "--"Oliver Sacks," New York Review of Books"
"There is a dancing, dazzling siren seductress at the heart of this book and...[it is] madness itself. . . . The startling associative imagery that gives Greenberg's writing its power is like a domesticated version of the madness that nearly carried away his daughter's life." --Lev Grossman, "Time"
"[Greenberg] recalls, with extraordinary insight, the mania and later the depression that took hold of his 15-year-old daughter...[He] renders the details of his daughter's breakdown with lyrical precision..." -- Nell Casey, "Washington Post"
"[A] remarkable account." --Rachel Donadio, "The New York Times Book Review"
"Powerful...With spare, unemotional prose, Greenberg captures what it's like to have a mentally ill child and the way the disease strips him of his sense of control over his daughter's health." --Deirdre Donahue, "USA" "Today"
"This memoir of a family crisis captures the grief that transformed their lives....readers come away with a sense of the intractable nature of psychosis and the courage it requires for patients like Sally, whose struggles continue, merely to live." --"People"
"An intense account of a young girl's manic depression, told by her father in crystalline prose with searing intensity. Passionateand unforgettable." --"Shelf Awareness"
"Realistic and believable... This well written memoir, which provides a realistic and sensitive look at the ravages of mental illness, is one that I would recommend to clients, families and caregivers." -- Gail Levinson, "Access," the newsletter of the Clinical Social Workers Association
"[Hurry Down Sunshine] is about tenacity and tenderness, feeling helpless but being present, about cracking up, then finding the wherewithal to glue the jagged pieces of your mind back together again. But mostly it's about love." --Oprah Winfrey, in her letter to readers in O, The Oprah Magazine

"Michael Greenberg's excellently written memoir,."." echoes the genre's most poignant predecessors. ... Greenberg's wry, lighting-bolt prose and unsentimental portrayal of his family's ordeal make for a brilliant, engrossing sketch of mental illness and its terrifying, destructive fallout." "-- Suzanne Niemoth, Flavorpill
""In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind ....Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul--a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through." "--"Oliver Sacks," New York Review of Books"
"[an]... extraordinary memoir..." -" Time, Lev Grossman
""The prose is so fluid that it transports us into the author's head, making his shock, fear, and love our own." - "Library Journal
"
"["Hurry Down Sunshine "is]... almost impossible to put down."
- "St. Louis Post-Dispatch
,,"."deeply affecting and poetically rendered..."
- "Shelf Awareness
"

"Suzanne Niemoth, Flavorpill"

"Michael Greenberg's excellently written memoir "..." echoes the genre's most poignant predecessors. ... Greenberg's wry, lighting-bolt prose and unsentimental portrayal of his family's ordeal make for a brilliant, engrossing sketch of mental illness and its terrifying, destructive fallout." "
"Oliver Sacks, " New York Review of Books"

"In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind ....Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul--a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through."
" Time, Lev Grossman"

"[an]... extraordinary memoir..." "
Library Journal

""The prose is so fluid that it transports us into the author's head, making his shock, fear, and love our own.""
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"
"["Hurry Down Sunshine "is]... almost impossible to put down."
"

Shelf Awareness

"."..deeply affecting and poetically rendered..."
"
"

"Suzanne Niemoth, Flavorpill"
"Michael Greenberg's excellently written memoir .".." echoes the genre's most poignant predecessors. ... Greenberg's wry, lighting-bolt prose and unsentimental portrayal of his family's ordeal make for a brilliant, engrossing sketch of mental illness and its terrifying, destructive fallout." "

"Oliver Sacks, " New York Review of Books"
"In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind ....Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul--a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through."

" Time, Lev Grossman"
"[an]... extraordinary memoir..." "

Library Journal
""The prose is so fluid that it transports us into the author's head, making his shock, fear, and love our own.""

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"
"["Hurry Down Sunshine "is]... almost impossible to put down."
"
Shelf Awareness
.".".deeply affecting and poetically rendered..."
"
"

Suzanne Niemoth, Flavorpill
Michael Greenberg's excellently written memoir echoes the genre's most poignant predecessors. Greenberg's wry, lighting-bolt prose and unsentimental portrayal of his family's ordeal make for a brilliant, engrossing sketch of mental illness and its terrifying, destructive fallout.

Oliver Sacks, New York Review of Books
In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind .Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through.

Time, Lev Grossman
[an] extraordinary memoir

Library Journal
The prose is so fluid that it transports us into the author's head, making his shock, fear, and love our own.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[Hurry Down Sunshine is] almost impossible to put down.


Shelf Awareness

deeply affecting and poetically rendered

"

Suzanne Niemoth, Flavorpill
"Michael Greenberg's excellently written memoir ... echoes the genre's most poignant predecessors. ... Greenberg's wry, lighting-bolt prose and unsentimental portrayal of his family's ordeal make for a brilliant, engrossing sketch of mental illness and its terrifying, destructive fallout."

Oliver Sacks, New York Review of Books
"In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind ....Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul--a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through."

Time, Lev Grossman
"[an]... extraordinary memoir..."

Library Journal
"The prose is so fluid that it transports us into the author's head, making his shock, fear, and love our own."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"[Hurry Down Sunshine is]... almost impossible to put down."


Shelf Awareness

..".deeply affecting and poetically rendered..."



Suzanne Niemoth, Flavorpill

"Michael Greenberg's excellently written memoir ... echoes the genre's most poignant predecessors. ... Greenberg's wry, lighting-bolt prose and unsentimental portrayal of his family's ordeal make for a brilliant, engrossing sketch of mental illness and its terrifying, destructive fallout."

Oliver Sacks, New York Review of Books

"In its detail, depth, richness, and sheer intelligence, Hurry Down Sunshine will be recognized as a classic of its kind ....Lucid, realistic, compassionate, illuminating, Hurry Down Sunshine may provide a sort of guide for those who have to negotiate the dark regions of the soul--a guide, too, for their families and friends, for all those who want to understand what their loved ones are going through."

Time, Lev Grossman

"[an]... extraordinary memoir..."

Library Journal

"The prose is so fluid that it transports us into the author's head, making his shock, fear, and love our own."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"[Hurry Down Sunshine is]... almost impossible to put down."


Shelf Awareness

..".deeply affecting and poetically rendered..."

About the Author:

Michael Greenberg

A native New Yorker, Michael Greenberg is a columnist for the Times Literary Supplement (London), where his wide-ranging essays have been appearing since 2003. His fiction, criticism, and travel pieces have been published widely. He lives in New York with his wife and nine-year-old son

About this edition

• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1590511913
• ISBN 13: 9781590511916
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 234