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JOSIE RELEASED FROM WITHIN

Name: JOSIE RELEASED FROM WITHIN
Author: Josie Coghlan
ISBN: 978-1499015621

by Josie Coghlan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 5, 2014

A personal tale of mental illness that is hopeful yet not as powerful as it could have been.

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A memoir detailing the difficulty of living with bipolar disorder as well as the potential for hope.

One of eight siblings, Coghlan experienced a happy but frugal childhood on a farm in Australia. She opens her memoir with fond memories of horse riding and life on a farm handling cattle. Unfortunately, these amusing country episodes were soon overshadowed by the arrival of an older cousin with sexually inappropriate behavior toward Coghlan, the first in a chain of events that revealed her mental instabilities. After suffering her first mental breakdown and hospitalization as a teenager, she was left wondering, “Why didn’t I get real support from my family, communication with realistic advice, and understanding for someone who is at a vulnerable age and who didn’t deserve to be left alone, lost and messed up?” Soon after, the psychiatrists diagnosed her with bipolar disorder, beginning a long struggle that featured medication and relapses. Coghlan’s jobs and relationships continued to fluctuate along with her mental state, except for the constant adoration of her boyfriend, Martin. Eventually the two were married and soon after had their first child, Jacob. Despite continued relapses, a battle with postnatal depression and a strained relationship with her sister Dianne, Coghlan moves to the final section of her memoir, which “expresses the importance and the privilege of sustaining a balance through friendship, faith, and hope.” Her writing is courageous in its honesty and admirable for shedding light on the daily struggles faced by people who suffer from mental illness. However, as a narrative, her memoir feels repetitive and stiff because Coghlan approaches her story with strict, often dry reporting of her situations and emotional states. At one point, she writes of an altercation with a fellow patient, saying only that “she was an angry patient and not one to mess with. She went somewhere else.” Coghlan’s is an important story, but here and elsewhere she misses opportunities for moments richer in dramatic tension that would affect her readers even more.

A personal tale of mental illness that is hopeful yet not as powerful as it could have been.

Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2014

ISBN: 978-1499015621

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Xlibris

Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2015

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

- BOOK REVIEW
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.