Hurry Down Sunshine

by Michael Greenberg

book data

553 ratings, 3.35 average rating, 183 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		10%
4		35%
3		35%
2		15%
1		2%

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published

September 9th 2008 by Other Press

binding

Hardcover, 234 pages

isbn

1590511913 (isbn13: 9781590511916)

description

HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE TELLS THE STORY OF THE extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg’s daughter was struck mad. It begins wi...more

[close] HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE TELLS THE STORY OF THE extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg’s daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally’s visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city’s most sweltering months. “I feel like I’m traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to,” Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her–her brother and grandmother, her mother and stepmother, and, not least of all, the author himself. Among Greenberg’s unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.

“The psychotic break of his fifteen-year-old daughter is the grit around which Michael Greenberg forms the pearl that is Hurry Down Sunshine. It is a brilliant, taut, entirely original study of a suffering child and a family and marriage under siege. I know of no other book about madness whose claim to scientific knowledge is so modest and whose artistic achievement is so great.” – Janet Malcolm, author of The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes and The Journalist and the Murderer

“One of the most gripping and disturbingly honest books I have ever read. The courage Michael Greenberg shows in narrating the story of his adolescent daughter’s descent into psychosis is matched by his acute understanding of how alone each of us, sane or manic, is in our processing of reality and our attempts to get others to appreciate what seems important to us. This is a remarkable memoir.” – Phillip Lopate, author of Two Marriages and Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan
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09/28/08

fbuser1081302408 rated it:

Read in October, 2008

One star. It was just not very good. I wanted to like it, but there was nothing that drew me in. Uninspired, poorly written, and boring.

I remember in high school I would quickly write a paper to get it in on time and then I would go back and find synonyms for some of the words that I thought sounded smarter, but it really just ruined the flow of the words. The book reminds me of that.

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11/15/08

Shoshanapnw rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, memoir-biography, psychology

Greenberg's memoir of his teen daughter's first bipolar manic episode is both engaging and problematic.

"Engaging" because of Greenberg's ability to tell the tale with emotion and immediacy. This wrenching family narrative is well worth reading to understand a parent's experience of extremely difficult and frightening events. It appears that Greenberg's daughter and family received inadequate and indifferent treatment, which is extremely troubling. His description of the eve...more Greenberg's memoir of his teen daughter's first bipolar manic episode is both engaging and problematic.

"Engaging" because of Greenberg's ability to tell the tale with emotion and immediacy. This wrenching family narrative is well worth reading to understand a parent's experience of extremely difficult and frightening events. It appears that Greenberg's daughter and family received inadequate and indifferent treatment, which is extremely troubling. His description of the events and their effects on his family is wrenching and raw.

"Problematic" first because Greenberg presents the story angrily. This is understandable and certainly warranted given the circumstances, but over the course of the book, the reader's impression is that Greenberg is angry in general. He describes the lack of adequate care his daughter received, and in the absence of context, I assume his report is accurate. However, he doesn't describe which interventions his daughter does receive, and when he alludes later to the course of her recovery from this episode, he is silent on whether he believes that her hospitalization and therapy were helpful. In many descriptions of his and his family's life, he accentuates the negative, which raises some concerns about the potential narrowness of his focus. Greenberg is trying to be clear and brutally honest about himself, but sometimes just seems brutal.

Further, Greenberg makes some puzzling errors that may speak both to his confusion and a lack of adequate editing. For example, he refers several times to "narcoleptics." He means "neuroleptics," a category of antipsychotic medication. "Narcoleptic" means a person with narcolepsy, a neurological sleep disorder. Unfortunately this error occurs several times; in and of itself this would just be unfortunate, but in conjunction with other areas of lack of clarity, it makes me wonder how well Greenberg and his family understood his daughter's treatment. Treatment can be confusing under the best of circumstances, and I would have no problem with a description of how confusing this experience was. However, it's not obvious whether Greenberg ever got clarity on this. Greenberg expresses his frustration that medical people do not know what causes bipolar disorder, a frustration that is, in fact, shared by many practitioners. However, Greenberg seems to have an ambivalent relationship with the idea that this disorder may be biologically based, often describing his shame and worry that he caused his daughter's bipolar disorder. Other family members worry that they, too contributed to the problem, and ruminate about the stigma associated with mental illness. One would expect that part of this story would be the family's realization that accepting this stigma is unreasonable, and the information that they were radicalized by this experience in some way. However, Greenberg does not report this, which seems to me to imply that he accepts the legitimacy of that stigma, and that a primarily biological description (if not explanation) of bipolar disorder is not sufficient for him. He still seems to see the origin of his daughter's illness as interpersonal or psychodynamic. While relational stress is often a contributor to increased symptoms and decreased functioning, a review of the research literature would show that stress and dysharmony are not sufficient to cause bipolar disorder in the absence of a biological substrate. The omission of this information seems strange to me given that Greenberg is a journalist and presumably is able to do his own background reading, call sources who could answer questions, etc. It again raises the question of where his editor was. The overall effect is of a story without a point, at least so far as the narrator's or his daughter's development or learning. In this way, its structure is that of a case report, not a plot.

Because the problems outweigh the benefits of this narrative, I would not recommend it for people or families trying to understand bipolar disorder. I would not assign it for a class on diagnosis, but might in a class focused on disconnections between families and providers.

For a more accurate and more nuanced report on bipolar disorder, read Jamison's An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. Jamison describes her own bipolar disorder, and, as one of the major contributors to the scientific research on bipolar disorder, characterizes the diagnosis both more accurately and more hopefully.(less)

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3 comments

11/03/08

Jaime rated it:

Read in November, 2008

This book, which is supposed to be about the mental breakdown of Greenberg's 15 year old daughter, seemed to me a far more self-serving statement of his own innocence in regard to his daughter's psychosis. We are told on almost every other page what a genius everyone thinks the author is. His performance artist wife, his hippie ex-wife, his elegant mother, his troubled daughter, his disturbed older brother. They ALL find time amidst what I would think a pretty serious family crisis, to let th...more

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09/08/08

Lisa Vegan rated it:

bookshelves: biography, non-fiction, reviewed

Read in December, 2008

recommended to Lisa by: Ginnie Jones
recommends it for: those who enjoy memoirs about mental illness

I did really enjoy this; it held my attention. However, I had a really hard time always liking and understanding these people, even though I appreciated the author’s honesty. I couldn’t believe how psychologically unsophisticated the author was, especially given that he and his wife (his daughter’s stepmother) both have/had other important people in their lives who have experienced mental illness in the form of psychotic breaks and psychosis.

The author dissects his family but i...more

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01/22/09

Molly rated it:

Read in December, 2008

ehh...it was interesting but i really wasnt expecting the book to be so focused on himself. i know, i know...its a memoir. but the entire reason i started it in the first place was because the description, title, cover art were focused around his daughter. i thought it was be an interesting insight to what it is like for HER from his point of view. it was more or less him claiming to be so baffled by her illness. he seemed to be writing this to prove to everyone that it wasn't his fault she was ...more

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12/19/08

Tony rated it:

bookshelves: didn-t-finish

I started it and didn't finish it. It's not a bad book, but it's very depressing and a bit self-indulgent for my tastes. The author is writing about his experiences with his daughter's mental breakdown at the age of 15 in the summer of 1996. The whole book takes place in the span of the summer and I feel like it's something that he should have written as a whole, instead of a brief period. It almost seems to cheapen the ordeal by doing that.

Another point is that the author doesn'...more

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12/18/08

Carrie rated it:

Read in December, 2008

I appreciate this book for what it is: a minute retelling of Sally's illness and its immediate, terrifying aftermath. It wasn't all that I was hoping for, however, in that Greenberg doesn't spend a lot of time on reflection even though at various points he seems to be wondering what he might have missed before Sally's first psychotic break, and there also seems to be some strange family stuff he mentions but doesn't seem interested in exploring. And he misses an opportunity at the end of the b...more

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09/07/08

Dianabanana rated it:

Read in September, 2008

I've loved Michael Greenberg's writing for a long time as my father and I have read and compared notes on his monthly column for the TLS for several years now. This book reads like an elongated version of one of his columns — nicely measured out amounts of pathos and sublime characterization of NYC and its misfits. It's the story of Greenberg's daughter's "crack up" or summer of bipolar madness. What distinguishes this book from the columns, aside from length, is its sadness. This c...more

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08/02/08

Elaine rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, august_08, books_for_review

Read in August, 2008

In the summer of 1996 the author’s fifteen year old daughter, Sally, experiences a major psychotic episode and he makes the hard decision to hospitalize her. While Sally is struggling through her psychosis in the hospital her whole family comes together to deal with the questions of why this happened and where to go from here. Just bringing her home is not the end of the line however, as there are still issues with stabilizing drug levels, getting Sally to the point where she can return to s...more

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11/27/08

Chrissy rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Chrissy by: The Today Show

Michael Greenberg's memoir of the summer of 1996 describes the months that his daughter was dealing with manic psychosis and was diagnosed as "bipolar 1." It's much more a book about his reactions to her illness, as well as that of his brother and negotiating between his wife and his ex-wife than it is about Sally's actual illness, but it's the book that he's most qualified to write; he wasn't in her head, so he can't say exactly what she was feeling at the time. It's a unique experien...more

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11/24/08

Mary Hoelscher rated it:

A daughter's behavior spirals out of control. Her father, an artist, and her step mother, a master of dance and stage performance, are thrust into the chaotic world of modern psychiatry. The reader is left reflecting on the line between sanity and insanity, brilliance, creativity, and who each of us really is. This is a moving work for any family or friend of anyone with a mental illness.

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11/23/08

Erika rated it:

bookshelves: medicine, nonfiction

Read in November, 2008

an engrossing book. a father's portrayal of what it is like to watch his daughter suffer through her first bought of mania. when she recovers near the end of the book, it is a profoundly moving moment. the father - the narrator - does not always come off as an admirable figure. it is a difficult trick to write a book about your family's most difficult mooments that is this brutally honest.

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03/22/09

Terry rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

This book is quite similar to Beautiful Boy, where the parent details his experience with his child’s unhinging, so to speak. Most “mental illness memoirs” tend to come from the ill person’s point of view, so it is interesting to read about the experience from the outside. That being said Sally’s explanation of her experience may be the most instructive (and poignant) one I’ve ever read—she makes it clearer than anywhere else I’ve read the real confusion that comes when someone p...more This book is quite similar to Beautiful Boy, where the parent details his experience with his child’s unhinging, so to speak. Most “mental illness memoirs” tend to come from the ill person’s point of view, so it is interesting to read about the experience from the outside. That being said Sally’s explanation of her experience may be the most instructive (and poignant) one I’ve ever read—she makes it clearer than anywhere else I’ve read the real confusion that comes when someone post-mania struggles to understand that every insight and paranoia she’s had is completely, utterly, thoroughly wrong, a product of her mind, not reality. Her brief description of her struggle to rebuild a correct perception of the world, to learn to analyze her perceptions for accuracy, is illuminating.

On the negative side, another similarity of this book to Beautiful Boy is in the amazing liberty the parents seem to feel to reveal their utter narcissism. In Beautiful Boy, the father is maddeningly ignorant of his child’s real needs and the chaos and insecurity his actions brought to his young son’s world. In Hurry Down Sunshine, I smacked my head in frustration as the father reveals that—oops!—he forgot to get HEALTH INSURANCE FOR HIS CHILD. He seems to find this a merely a quirk of his artistic temperament, a temperament that also sees nothing wrong in having his teen daughter live in what can generously be called a sublet (it’s more like they’re squatting) where they are literally not allowed to possess any personal items other than what can basically be carried away in a grocery bag. Both parents (in each book) are the type who say, “Oh, I NEVER let my child watch television” but they drag their 9-year-old children to midnight screenings of foreign films, or laugh that they may make grilled cheese sandwiches for their child, but, heh heh, they make them with artisanal bread and imported gruyere cheese, because they’re artists, you know. All of Sally’s adult caretakers seem much more invested in their own lives and careers than in nurturing the healthy growth of their child. I’m not blaming them for Sally’s illness, because another positive aspect of Hurry Down Sunshine is that it makes clear that mental illness can happen to anyone, any time, of any class, age, or upbringing. It’s chemical, it’s biological, and possibly though not necessarily hereditary. But I was still kind of disgusted at the adults in Sally’s world.
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03/12/09

Alex rated it:

Read in January, 2009

To use a much over used adjective, this really is a poignant novel from a talented writer. Michael Greenberg is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and has a style and tone that is both accessible and multi-layered. A tone he applies to the sensitive subject of mental illness.

In Hurry Down Sunshine, Greenberg relays his bipolar daughter's first manic episode and hospitalization. Greenberg approaches the subject with a clarity I have yet to see in the popular dis...more

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01/30/09

Judy rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Heartsick parent memoirs. Sometimes I wonder why I read them, and sometimes I just have to put them down. Michael Greenberg's book, however, reads like finely tuned fiction. If he is heartsick at times, and who wouldn't be, he is also humorous, self-deprecating, but ever the journalist calling on the science of mental illness as well as the literature of madness even as he is mired in depression and regret.

Greenberg's world of characters --friends, family, and the inhabitants of t...more Heartsick parent memoirs. Sometimes I wonder why I read them, and sometimes I just have to put them down. Michael Greenberg's book, however, reads like finely tuned fiction. If he is heartsick at times, and who wouldn't be, he is also humorous, self-deprecating, but ever the journalist calling on the science of mental illness as well as the literature of madness even as he is mired in depression and regret.

Greenberg's world of characters --friends, family, and the inhabitants of the locked ward where his daughter lands for a month-- are, in the words of his mother 'meshuganeh.' But really, these people are no stranger than the rest of us, and the distinction between the 'walking wacky' and the 'certifiably mad' lies at the core of this jewel of a book. Far from a typical high school student, daughter Sally is quick-witted, sharp-tongued, and there is no doubt that her punning diatribes did not start with her descent into mania but instead just amplified, overwhelmed, and spun out of control with the rest of her thought processes. And the author's musings on the workings of a creative mind highlight why a bipolar in control is the life of the party and the heart of the ad agency.

That said, he does not allow us to believe that being bipolar (he points out people have cancer or have AIDS, but they are bipolar) is an exciting journey of discovery. It profoundly affects its victims and the people who love them. Per Greenberg: "In a single stroke her identity has changed; and by extension ours, as a family, has changed too...She's gone away like the dead, leaving this false shell of herself to talk at me in an invented dialect only it can understand." And, thank heavens, the flip side: "Something about her tone caught my attention: the modulation of her voice, its unpressured directness...It's as if a miracle had occurred. The miracle of normalcy, of ordinary existence."

This is a remarkable book. It's a quick read only insofar as the prose is seamless, but no summer beach reading this. Whether or not you're a heartsick parent or your family has been touched by mental illness, you will emerge at the end wondering at the incredible intricacies of the human mind.
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01/22/09

Mandy marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

Feministing review:

Not Oprah's Book Club: Hurry Down Sunshine

In this small but deep memoir by journalist Michael Greenberg we get a bare-all look at his experience of his daughter's first psychotic break, leading to her bipolar diagnosis and years of struggle for sanity. Greenberg, in the style of the great Joan Didion, sticks to the facts, but manages to make them starkly beautiful even while they are truthfully mundane. His daughter wants artichoke and chocolate in the ...more

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01/11/09

Madeline rated it:

Read in January, 2009

In some ways I was impressed by this book and in others I was very much disappointed. While this book was written about the summer of his daughter's first manic episode, it was really very poorly contrasted to who this girl was previously. We hear the narrator (her father)mention how she acted briefly and then there is a short period where we see her go back to her "normal" self. But we have no initial basis for comparison. For this reason and others, the book comes off as a look i...more

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01/03/09

Tamara rated it:

Read in January, 2009

recommends it for: anyone struggling to love someone wrestling with demons

I was shocked by how much I liked this book. It took almost no effort to read, although the language and topic were quite dense. And it was one of the few books written from a male POV that I easily related to.

Sally's father does an amazing job of describing the dueling feelings that accompany caring for someone who is mentally ill.

Favorite Quotes:

Of his own children, he used to say, "Whatever they are, I've no reason to act surprised."

"Yo...more

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05/09/09

Mike rated it:

Read in May, 2009

This is a fascinating true story, about a 15 y.o. girl who goes mad one day, and the effect it has on her father and her family. The author doesn't seem to have any particular agenda, he just tells the horrifying story as it happened. In addition to his daughter, the author is also dealing with a mentally ill brother, and a relatively recent marriage. The writing, mostly chronological, is tight, making the book an easy read.

I thought the most interesting observations in the book were...more

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04/21/09

Britta rated it:

bookshelves: -fortheloveofbooks-club, 2009, non-fiction

Read in April, 2009

recommended to Britta by: Amazon.com

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I went to college with and had a very scary incident with a boy who was bipolar. When he went into one of his manic phases (at this point in time I had no idea he was bipolar - he only told one of the three other people I lived with) and my two roommates and I went to the Cambridgeside Galleria (a mall in Boston) leaving a third roommate alone with him, we came home to police cars and ambulances at our apartment. We were scared to say the least but not as scared at that third roommate who believ...more

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quotes from this book

"If Sally had been in an accident or come down with some overtly physical disease, I would not hesitate to tell him about it, confident that his sympathies would flow in my direction as a matter of course. But psychosis defies empathy; few people who have not experienced it up close buy the idea of a behavioral disease. It has the ring of an excuse, a license for self-absorption on the most extreme scale. It suggests that one chooses madness and not the other way around. (86)" More quotes...