A fragmented, agonized, and puzzling account of mental illness and the justice system.
Murphy documents his struggle to reassemble his memory after a traumatic arrest in this debut memoir.
In the spring of 2008, the author stayed in a hotel in Deland, Florida, while his home was being renovated. Murphy, who suffers from bipolar disorder, felt a manic episode coming on, so he switched hotels, thinking he would feel safer at a nearby Holiday Inn. Sometime later, he locked himself out of his room with the water running, causing it to flood into the hallway. Another guest shouted at him and threatened him until the police arrived; they then arrested Murphy on a charge of criminal mischief. The author asserts that while he was being held in the Volusia County Jail, “something extremely inhumane and perverse occurred…perpetrated by the guards on duty, somewhere between May 5, 2008, and on or around May 6, 2008, causing my mind to be shattered and erased.” A monthslong series of hospitalizations and court cases followed, during which Murphy attempted to recover his memory and address the wrongs that he felt had been done to him. This book—which is composed primarily of letters that the author wrote to various people, including his cousin, his pastor, his lawyer, his seventh-grade teacher, and even the president of the United States—is an account of his long legal and psychological struggle. Murphy’s prose can be difficult to follow at times. However, it features occasional flashes of visionary imagery: “Imagine your mind was the atmosphere, and it broke, sending all of the stars, planets, and moons into an orbit, never to be retrieved.” There are other moments that feel grandiose, as when the author says, “Just as Martin Luther King Jr. has been to the mountaintop for blacks in America, I can see clearly from the top of the mountain for people who are mentally ill.” The account may give readers the sense that authorities in Florida mishandled Murphy’s case. However, the book as a whole is disorganized, and it’s often difficult to piece its narrative together.
A fragmented, agonized, and puzzling account of mental illness and the justice system.Pub Date: May 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64367-539-8
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Urlink Print & Media, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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