Home › Books › Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an America…
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family
by
94/99
Critics' Rating Index
71/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
96/99
Volume of Reviews
98/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.
Reviews
"He gives as much voice to the schizophrenic siblings as he does to their relatives, many of whom suffered tremendous psychological and sexual abuse from being in their orbit ..."
"But it's a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how far we've come in treating one of the most severe forms of mental illness—and how far we still have to go."
"But family turmoil is inherently more amenable to narrative drama than the slow, painstaking crawl of medical research, and Kolker — who skillfully corrals the disparate strands of his story and gives all of his many characters their due — knows better than to settle for pat truths."
"The reporter in Kolker seeks accuracy above all, but there's a notable lack of judgment in the book that feels remarkable in light of the stigma long felt by those who have the condition in their families ..."
"Despite Kolker's best efforts, the negative symptoms of schizophrenia plus the 'emotional flattening' of antipsychotic drugs often has the effect of blurring all the sick Galvin men into a single character ..."
"An exceptional, unforgettable, and significant work that must not be missed."
"a riveting and disquieting narrative ..."
"It entered public consciousness through memoir and is still, in Kolker's work, best examined at length, in writing."
"Kolker is a restrained and unshowy writer who is able to effectively set a mood."
"This is a haunting and memorable look at the impact of mental illness on multiple generations."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!