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Scattershot: My Bipolar Family | 
 enlarge | Author: David Lovelace
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.79
You Save: $13.16 (53%)
New (41) Used (18) from $6.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 50233
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3
ISBN: 0525950788
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.895
EAN: 9780525950783
ASIN: 0525950788
Publication Date: September 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Glass Castle meets An Unquiet Mind in a mesmerizing, loving memoir about growing up in a family plagued by bipolar disorder.
Four out of the five people in poet David Lovelaces immediate family have experienced bipolar disorderincluding David himself. His relationship with the disease began with his artist mothers severe depressions during his boyhood in the 1960s and continued through decades of his preacher fathers increasingly eccentric behavior. The familys battle with the disorder reached its apex in 1986, the year that his father, his brother, and David himself were all committed in quick succession. Only his sister has escaped unscathed.
Scattershot is Lovelaces poignant, humorous, and vivid account of the diseases effects on his family, and his gripping exploits as he spent his life running fromand finally learning to embracethe madness imprinted on his genes. Scattershot explores the powerful connections between fundamentalist religious belief and mental illness, illuminated by Davids strange and fantastic childhood in church camps and parish residences.
A coming-of-age story punctuated by a series of truly harrowing experiences, this devastating and empathetic portrait of the Lovelace family strips away the shame associated with bipolar disorder and celebrates the profound creative gifts that come with it.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Scattershot- a perfect star October 30, 2008
David Lovelace presents a perfect autobiographical account of an apparent 'idylic' childhood that has the undercurrent of a misunderstood mental illness that racked his entire family and shaped his unique persona. David's witty and somewhat satirical writing style is spectacular and his insights into his own family's coping mechanisms are brilliant.
Read this book! It's excellent.
Paul M. Melrose, MA
What a journey! September 19, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was trying to explain to my daughter what makes this such an amazing book. There are just so many things. The whole thing is laced with poetic language. The cadence is magical. And I was struck by how brilliantly organized it is. Amid his personal storytelling Lovelace gives historic background and scientific stats and info on the Bipolar condition in a seamless manner. And, the story just keeps going. Some of the scenes are just waiting for the Big Screen. I really could not put it down!
Heartbreaking and funny September 17, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
While Scattershot focuses on the heartbreaking story of a family struggling with Bipolar disorder, this is not some pity piece - Lovelace tells the story with sensitivity but no sugar coat, showing everyone's weaknesses and heroism. I feel like I started to understand the reality of being "crazy" at times and knowing it, along with the strange allure of the manic state. Told with humor and a poet's touch, Scattershot is readable - as well as sad, happy, and revealing.
EXCELLENT READ September 10, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
The beginning in some memoirs can be drudgery , waiting for momemtum, but not so with this! I was intrigued immediately, and finished this in two nights. Some of my favorite scenes are in the waiting room, and the MAYBE HYPO manic, and the tender way he described his parents marraige. The 'lost friendhips' brought a sense of sadness for me. Teh role of art in their lives was really well written and interesting to me. I like the way his father was atheist , at one time,and what a burden the ever present ' dogmatic stabilzer' was in their environment. I empathized wholeheartedly with the synapse between being present for his children and wife and being 'stimulated' or clincially euphoric and ' grandiose'.
My best read since The Tender Bar and an Unquiet Mind.
Rebecca Holske
A Balanced Approach September 10, 2008
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Unlike most other memoirs about mental illness, Scattershot isn't a complete downer. You finish with hope and laugh quite a bit along the way. I didn't end the book and feel exhausted or sad. I could relate to many of the experiences, since only a few were horrific ordeals.
This is a fast, fun and sometimes harrowing read! If you read the opening chapter, you'll be hooked. As enjoyable as this is, it still chronicles the dissolution of of an entire family to a misunderstood mental illness.
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