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Catching an Orange
In this unconventional memoir, author and playwright Amy Crider writes thirty years of letters to a psychiatrist who treated her for just three days-and who never wrote back. What emerges is far more than a mental health narrative: it's a mystery story, a love letter to a man in a necktie with scientific formulas, and a meditation on the complex ways we construct our lives.
When Amy is hospitalized for a manic episode in 1993, she meets Dr. L., whose brief comment-"Yes, Amy, I do" know you-becomes the foundation for decades of one-sided correspondence. Through these letters, Amy unravels the gothic complexities of her first marriage to a man who believed he could revolutionize physics with a free-energy generator, built boats that inevitably sank, and whose family sang hymns while she descended into psychosis.
From vampire phlebotomists to sloshed psychiatrists, Crider's prose moves between philosophical revelation and dark comedy, examining how mental illness can sharpen perception even as it distorts reality. She unveils how a therapist can diagnose your mother with a personality disorder without meeting her, and uncovers why someone might stay married to a partner who insists on building boats instead of fixing the stove.
Catching an Orange defies memoir conventions with its epistolary structure and its refusal to provide easy resolution. Only after thirty years does Amy understand the true reason she never stopped writing. It's about the conversations we never finish, the people who change us in three days, and what it means to finally catch an orange.
When Amy is hospitalized for a manic episode in 1993, she meets Dr. L., whose brief comment-"Yes, Amy, I do" know you-becomes the foundation for decades of one-sided correspondence. Through these letters, Amy unravels the gothic complexities of her first marriage to a man who believed he could revolutionize physics with a free-energy generator, built boats that inevitably sank, and whose family sang hymns while she descended into psychosis.
From vampire phlebotomists to sloshed psychiatrists, Crider's prose moves between philosophical revelation and dark comedy, examining how mental illness can sharpen perception even as it distorts reality. She unveils how a therapist can diagnose your mother with a personality disorder without meeting her, and uncovers why someone might stay married to a partner who insists on building boats instead of fixing the stove.
Catching an Orange defies memoir conventions with its epistolary structure and its refusal to provide easy resolution. Only after thirty years does Amy understand the true reason she never stopped writing. It's about the conversations we never finish, the people who change us in three days, and what it means to finally catch an orange.
- GenresNonfiction
160 pages, Paperback
Published April 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 22, 2026
Thank you, Garrett County Press, for gifting me a copy of this book!
This heartbreaking case study chronicles Amy Crider's lifelong struggles with mental health and the broken healthcare system in the 1980s and '90's that failed her. The book spans over 30 years and is written as a series of letters from Amy to her psychiatrist, detailing her life's battles with trying to get a correct diagnosis, intermittent mania and psychosis, and medication issues. Neither she nor her husband's family was supportive throughout any of this, so Amy was alone in her struggles, isolated physically and emotionally from friends and family, and loneliness only made her condition worse. Despite her struggles, she never gave up, which is such a testament to her resilience. This case study is a work of art, illustrates the human side of what mental illness can look like, and is a must-read.
This heartbreaking case study chronicles Amy Crider's lifelong struggles with mental health and the broken healthcare system in the 1980s and '90's that failed her. The book spans over 30 years and is written as a series of letters from Amy to her psychiatrist, detailing her life's battles with trying to get a correct diagnosis, intermittent mania and psychosis, and medication issues. Neither she nor her husband's family was supportive throughout any of this, so Amy was alone in her struggles, isolated physically and emotionally from friends and family, and loneliness only made her condition worse. Despite her struggles, she never gave up, which is such a testament to her resilience. This case study is a work of art, illustrates the human side of what mental illness can look like, and is a must-read.
September 7, 2026
I felt such a strong connection to Amy and her heartbreaking story.
I could not believe what the psychiatrists and psychologists put her through. She was already feeling so lost and alone, and instead of making her feel heard, some of the things they did seemed to make her feel even more alone. And the greed of some of the doctors was infuriating.
I also couldn’t stop thinking about her marriage. Her husband was struggling with his own mental illness and honestly because of that he wasn’t emotionally there for her (could he be??) Unlike Amy though he did not want help or want to accept what was happening to either one of them. I can’t imagine how hard that would be on a marriage, let alone on both of them individually.
And can we talk about the therapist who told her that her mother had a personality disorder without ever meeting her, simply because Amy didn’t bring up her mother in therapy - that therapist should’ve NEVER been aloud to practice. She did so much more than that too, just completely ignoring everything Amy was trying to tell her and laughing in her face.
I really appreciated the letters to her therapist and the honesty throughout the book. I especially loved that, even though they didn’t have a ton of time together, she healed from that interaction and through her letter writing to him. And I actually respected that out of all
Of the people she saw , he didn’t want to give her a diagnosis without having enough time with her.
There were definitely moments that broke my heart, and I may have teared up. At its core, this felt like the story of someone desperately searching for help and needing someone willing to actually listen.
Heartbreaking, honest, and definitely one that stuck with me.
I could not believe what the psychiatrists and psychologists put her through. She was already feeling so lost and alone, and instead of making her feel heard, some of the things they did seemed to make her feel even more alone. And the greed of some of the doctors was infuriating.
I also couldn’t stop thinking about her marriage. Her husband was struggling with his own mental illness and honestly because of that he wasn’t emotionally there for her (could he be??) Unlike Amy though he did not want help or want to accept what was happening to either one of them. I can’t imagine how hard that would be on a marriage, let alone on both of them individually.
And can we talk about the therapist who told her that her mother had a personality disorder without ever meeting her, simply because Amy didn’t bring up her mother in therapy - that therapist should’ve NEVER been aloud to practice. She did so much more than that too, just completely ignoring everything Amy was trying to tell her and laughing in her face.
I really appreciated the letters to her therapist and the honesty throughout the book. I especially loved that, even though they didn’t have a ton of time together, she healed from that interaction and through her letter writing to him. And I actually respected that out of all
Of the people she saw , he didn’t want to give her a diagnosis without having enough time with her.
There were definitely moments that broke my heart, and I may have teared up. At its core, this felt like the story of someone desperately searching for help and needing someone willing to actually listen.
Heartbreaking, honest, and definitely one that stuck with me.
June 15, 2026
𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
📚 enjoy reading memoirs
❤️ have ever been in love with someone you couldn’t have
🏥 believe mental health programs still need improvement
🙋🏼♀️ struggle with mental health issues
• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓
In this unconventional memoir, author and playwright Amy Crider writes thirty years of letters to a psychiatrist who treated her for just three days—and never wrote back. What emerges is far more than a mental health narrative: it's a mystery story, a love letter to a man in a necktie with scientific formulas, and a meditation on the complex ways we construct our lives.
When Amy is hospitalized for a manic episode in 1993, she meets Dr. L., whose assertion after three days that he truly knows her—"Yes, Amy, I do"—becomes the foundation for decades of one-sided correspondence. Through these letters, Amy unravels the gothic complexities of her first marriage to a man who believed he could revolutionize physics with a free-energy generator, built boats that inevitably sank, and whose family sang hymns while she descended into psychosis.
• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒
This was a moving memoir, filled with letters that broke my heart. Amy is a resilient woman, struggling to navigate a broken healthcare system that, especially then, didn’t understand mental health issues. It made sense why she clung to the idea of Dr. L, even though she barely knew him. I enjoyed reading her letters and learning more about her past. I wanted to reach back through time and hold her hand and tell her everything would be okay. Pick this up if you’re looking for something raw and gritty with no details left out!
📚 enjoy reading memoirs
❤️ have ever been in love with someone you couldn’t have
🏥 believe mental health programs still need improvement
🙋🏼♀️ struggle with mental health issues
• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓
In this unconventional memoir, author and playwright Amy Crider writes thirty years of letters to a psychiatrist who treated her for just three days—and never wrote back. What emerges is far more than a mental health narrative: it's a mystery story, a love letter to a man in a necktie with scientific formulas, and a meditation on the complex ways we construct our lives.
When Amy is hospitalized for a manic episode in 1993, she meets Dr. L., whose assertion after three days that he truly knows her—"Yes, Amy, I do"—becomes the foundation for decades of one-sided correspondence. Through these letters, Amy unravels the gothic complexities of her first marriage to a man who believed he could revolutionize physics with a free-energy generator, built boats that inevitably sank, and whose family sang hymns while she descended into psychosis.
• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒
This was a moving memoir, filled with letters that broke my heart. Amy is a resilient woman, struggling to navigate a broken healthcare system that, especially then, didn’t understand mental health issues. It made sense why she clung to the idea of Dr. L, even though she barely knew him. I enjoyed reading her letters and learning more about her past. I wanted to reach back through time and hold her hand and tell her everything would be okay. Pick this up if you’re looking for something raw and gritty with no details left out!
June 4, 2026
Catching An Orange by Amy Crider is a memoir by the author and honest about her struggles with mental health, over the course of her entire life. This book chronicles Amy's life journey in a broken healthcare system with trying to get a diagnosis and the right help for her problems. As someone with a mental health issues, I understand the struggles with trying to figure out is going on with yourself and the others around you. I thankfully have an emotionally involved husband of over 17 years who has stuck with me during all my time, and has been my therapist of sorts., I can understand how Amy would feel isolated in her family and relationships if she did not have a powerful enough relationship with someone either in her family or with her husband. I did like in the book how the author never gave up, I understand that personally as I have done the same thing with my own husband and my children. I fight daily and never have given up to my mental illness. I love that about this author and this memoir, it is a great message to people like myself who have mental issues. I love how Amy wrote letters to Dr. L throughout the book, letter writing does help a lot in recovery and just in keeping yourself in a stable state throughout your lifetime. I highly recommend this read to fans of memoirs and those who are needing to know that they are not alone with mental illness, there are others like yourself out there!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Read this book and perhaps begin to understand why some extraordinary people you know may be voyaging through years of confusion and misdirection with only a few stars to guide them and not all are fortunate enough to "catch an orange."
Amy Crider's case history, developed from letters to an unforgettable therapist from her past, is an intimate quest for personal equilibrium. We begin when she tells us about 30 years of letters to Dr. L., after knowing him for only three days. He has died and this short, sweet book is a reliving of all that she wrote to him about how her life of fitful self-reflection and physical illness progressed while shrouded in confusing signals from family, friends, and work. As a young woman, Amy feels something new when Dr. L delivers her diagnosis, and she falls in layers of love with him. What touches the heart is that Amy persists in her brilliant way to find out what and why she feels so much love for her past therapist. Her husband at the time whose own voyage into impossibilities enables and denies Amy's recovery. She perseveres through misdiagnoses, hospitalizations, dreams and daily confusions. Her constant is that short window of therapy with Dr. L and this case history of why she thinks and dreams of him as her touchstone. The letters buoyed her spirit for decades, but the journey is what is so fascinating. What is real, what is to be endured, and what must change? Amy Crider solves her own life mystery because she is an exceptional detective of the mind and heart.
Amy Crider's case history, developed from letters to an unforgettable therapist from her past, is an intimate quest for personal equilibrium. We begin when she tells us about 30 years of letters to Dr. L., after knowing him for only three days. He has died and this short, sweet book is a reliving of all that she wrote to him about how her life of fitful self-reflection and physical illness progressed while shrouded in confusing signals from family, friends, and work. As a young woman, Amy feels something new when Dr. L delivers her diagnosis, and she falls in layers of love with him. What touches the heart is that Amy persists in her brilliant way to find out what and why she feels so much love for her past therapist. Her husband at the time whose own voyage into impossibilities enables and denies Amy's recovery. She perseveres through misdiagnoses, hospitalizations, dreams and daily confusions. Her constant is that short window of therapy with Dr. L and this case history of why she thinks and dreams of him as her touchstone. The letters buoyed her spirit for decades, but the journey is what is so fascinating. What is real, what is to be endured, and what must change? Amy Crider solves her own life mystery because she is an exceptional detective of the mind and heart.
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June 13, 2026Received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
What an odd book yet it's beautifully written. I don't leave star ratings for memoirs but I would rate it high if I did. It's chaotic but lyrical. So hard to describe.
What an odd book yet it's beautifully written. I don't leave star ratings for memoirs but I would rate it high if I did. It's chaotic but lyrical. So hard to describe.
June 18, 2026
A window into the memoirist's fascinating and at times heart-stoppingly imperiling world as she navigates the extremes of life--especially other people--while contending with mental illness. Enlightening, inspiring, and witty. Bravo to brave Ms. Crider!
May 5, 2026
Strange and poignant.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews