Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life
In this funny but unsettling memoir, 34-year-old Iranian American lawyer and activist Moezzi vividly describes her swings between mania (she disrobes in a lobby) and deep depression (she attempts suicide). She is the daughter of an ob/gyn father and a pathologist mother, who tells her that vertical cuts cause more bleeding than horizontal ones, knowledge she uses when she slits her wrists. Like so many memoirists, Moezzi fictionalizes parts of her story, changing names and creating composite figures while weaving insights and humor into her expletive-laced book (titled after a medication and a flower “signifying the start of spring”). One example: “Losing your mind is indeed traumatizing . . . it’s not like getting cancer. No one rallies around you or shaves her head in solidarity or brings you sweets.” Moezzi is also critical of most mental-health facilities. She ends on a realistic note, pointing out that she takes daily medication and is “not cured” though she hasn’t been hospitalized in more than four years. In all, a passionate first-person account of mental illness. --Karen Springen