More or Less Maddy

by Lisa Genova

She misses her favorite jeans, her clear face, her steady hands. She misses who she was before her diagnosis. She misses herself.

“Let me tell you something. You start before you’re ready. You jump into the fire. That’s how you cook your craft.”

Some people will say she has bipolar, while others will say she is bipolar. It’s a subtle distinction in wording, a linguistic sleight of hand, but the difference in meaning feels significant.