This was not an easy memoir to write, and it was not an easy memoir to read. The author has managed to delve deeper into his psyche and subjective experiences than most people are able to ever do. He did this despite having to face something so painful, more painful than anyone can imagine, and yet he succeeds in taking the reader by the hand and leading them through what happened, the before and the after.

Many memoirs in this vein try to combine a personal memoir and investigative journalism, often failing at both. This memoir is 90% memoir, which was good. He has studied schizophrenia and mental illness in general, he has interviewed experts, he has tried to understand, but he doesn't make this examination the core of his book. The core is his family.

A memoir like this could very easily be a sensationalist money-grab, but it's obvious that the author wrote this more for himself than anyone else, his family included. His ability to empathize and to see shades of gray is astounding. Great work, that's all I can say.