Review: A Beautiful Mind
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 10, 2014
It's been a while since I've felt my words too inadequate to do justice to a writer, but this book review is one. Robert Thomas Doran unabashedly reveals his flaws in profound, poetic prose that is mesmerizing.  Although I've read numerous articles about mental illness, the last book I read was The Eden Express by Mark Vonnegut, son of famous writer, Kurt Vonnegut. I believe A Prison of Lies: A Journey Through Madness is superb in comparison.This book is filled with memorable phraseology, and I see other reviewers have quoted the author as part of their reviews in their excitement to share favorite Doran idioms, but the following sentence is the first I highlighted when I realized I was reading the work of a masterful writer.  "That solitary sound amplifies an emptiness that grows in the void as a slowly rising thunder, which can be heard only within the soul."It's been said there is a fine line between genius and insanity, and also that love is most often the emotion that triggers the human psyche into a downward spiral. Now, I've known two people with mental health issues, and they were the most fun, intelligent people I've known. But when things got weird, it was scary.Interesting, enlightening, and brutally honest, this autobiography transports readers through some very tough experiences that although uncomfortable in spots, left me feeling better for having read it.  Even if you have never personally faced mental illness on any level or have never been exposed to others going through horrifying human despair, I believe you will do some intense soul searching during this read. This substantial memoir pulls you so deeply into harrowing details, you get a sense of what the author must have experienced.Albeit my friend suffered for years before finally being stabilized with proper medications, I never fully understood the gravity of this illness until reading A Prison of Lies. Obviously a brilliant man, Doran's evocation of his experience of madness surpasses anything I have ever read on the subject, and I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. This is a read for everyone --- And it is uplifting!