Remnants of a Life on Paper

Name: Remnants of a Life on Paper
Author: Bea Tusiani
ISBN: 978-0985571818

A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER'S STRUGGLE WITH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

by Bea Tusiani ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 2013

A haunting narrative sure to linger in readers’ minds.

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This heartbreaking, compelling memoir details a family’s attempts to cope with the havoc created by mental illness.

Pamela Tusiani was 20 years old and a junior at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md., when she suffered her first serious mental breakdown. Her mother rushed down from New York to help her youngest child through the web of doctors, hospitals, medications and treatments that would become the script of their lives for the next three years. With disarming honesty and clarity, Tusiani (Con Amore, 2004, etc.) chronicles the journey of Pamela and the family as they navigated America’s at times woefully inadequate mental health system. Since her now-deceased daughter left behind copious notes—on pieces of note paper, on legal pads and in journals—Tusiani is able to juxtapose her own recollections with Pamela’s direct observations and feelings. The contrasts are often dramatic, as mother and daughter pull together, apart and back together in a painful dance that hurtles toward a tragic conclusion. Tusiani enumerates the unique difficulties of dealing with a mentally ill family member, from finding Pamela bleeding from a self-inflicted wound—she had a proclivity for cutting her arms and legs so she could “feel something”—to learning that Pamela, either through maliciousness or delusion, falsely accused her father of raping her. The unpredictable is always around the corner. A third component of the memoir is the court battle that ensued when Tusiani and her husband sue for malpractice the final, California-based facility that managed Pamela’s care; each chapter opens with transcripts from the legal depositions of both parents. Pamela’s older sister, Paula Tusiani-Eng, took on the mammoth task of assembling and organizing these disparate elements into this lucid volume that should be required reading for anyone involved with the mental health community. The cocktails of medications, the variety of treatment facilities and the extraordinary monetary outlays are overwhelming. But ultimately, what’s most riveting is the author’s uncensored reporting of her own emotional roller-coaster ride during a relentless search to find what would be best for Pamela.

A haunting narrative sure to linger in readers’ minds.

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2013

ISBN: 978-0985571818

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Baroque Press

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.