Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: June 28, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 913658
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In this novel of family and redemption, a mother struggles to save her eighteen-year-old daughter from the devastating consequences of mental illness by forcing her to deal with her bipolar disorder. New York Times best-selling author Bebe Moore Campbell draws on her own powerful emotions and African-American roots, showcasing her best writing yet.
Trina suffers from bipolar disorder, making her paranoid, wild, and violent. Watching her child turn into a bizarre stranger, Keri searches for assistance through normal channels. She quickly learns that a seventy-two hour hold is the only help you can get when an adult child starts to spiral out of control. After three days, Trina can sign herself out of any program.
Fed up with the bureaucracy of the mental health community and determined to save her daughter by any means necessary, Keri signs on for an illegal intervention. The Program is a group of radicals who eschew the psychiatric system and model themselves after the Underground Railroad. When Keri puts her daughter’s fate in their hands, she begins a journey that has her calling on the spirit of Harriet Tubman for courage. In the upheaval that follows, she is forced to confront a past that refuses to stay buried, even as she battles to secure a future for her child.
Bebe Moore Campbell’s moving story is for anyone who has ever faced insurmountable obstacles and prayed for a happy ending, only to discover she’d have to reach deep within herself to fight for it.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
As the mother of a child with multiple mental health issues (I've been lucky so far, but I know others...), I was very invested in this book. I found it mostly accurate, especially in regard to dealing with an adult family member who is not able to properly care for him/herself and the peculiar pecking order of whose child is sicker than whose, from a group of people who "should know better". (Heck, we're all just trying to get by.) The prose, while not spectacular, flowed smoothly and kept my attention. My complaints- an "action-adventure" section near the end of the book. I guess it was to show us how desperate parents can become, but it seemed contrived and out of place. The book would have been better without it. I would have liked to hear more about the grandmother, who was squeezed into the end where everything was at least somewhat resolved far too quickly, like the deadline was arriving and the publisher was at the door. While the author was far too realistic to give us a "everyone's fine, every thing's perfect" ending, for a group of people who have been muddling through an entire book, it felt too fast to settle them all down in the last 2 chapters. Nonetheless, much more good than bad- worth reading.
Rated by buyers 
-
I enjoyed reading this book. As a psychiatric nurse, I found the book to be a realistic view of the mental health system and the heart break of having a sick child or family member who is not med compliant and is in and out of the hospital.
Rated by buyers -
I thought this book was powerful in showing the reader the actions of a particularly mentally ill person and the pains that a caretaker my face in caring for one. At times, I felt my heart pound with fear and anger, then soften with sorrow and worry. This story has great characterization, evokes much emotion and is thought provoking. I'd highly recommend this as a good read.
Rated by buyers -
BeBe Moore Campbell does an excellent job at discussing some very real issues that plague our community...the lack of good/restorative mental health care. Being one who can identify with much of what Trina experienced, it was interesting to see how Campbell captured the true essence of mental illness...specifically BiPolour Disorder.
I could only give it 3 stars because and only because it wasn't a real page turner. You wanted to read it, but what motivated me was wanting to get to the end...not page turning exhillaration and excitement. It was a good book. Campbell did a good job...it almost seems like it was based on a true story. That is how vivid the characters and experiences were.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever dealt with a mental illnes; has family or friends that battle mental illness; or wants to learn more about mental illness. It was a needed book. Kudos to Campbell.
Peace and Blessings.
Rated by buyers -
An excellent story in which the reader is taken down that dark pathway of mental illness. The suffering Keri has to undergo is palpable and we weep with her as in order to get help for her bi-polar daughter, Trina, she traverses a complicated system full of mindless bureaucracy. Many other intense subjects are dealt with in this novel as well.
Superb writing style. I liked those metaphors of slavery time, especailly the final one about Ol' Harriet. Well done! Ms Campbell will surely live on in her works.
Find other books like this one:
