'Dazzling ... in her kaleidoscopic essays, memoir has been shattered into sliding and overlapping pieces ... mind-expanding' The New York Times Book Review
Esmé Weijun Wang was officially diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in 2013, although the hallucinations and psychotic episodes had started years before that. In the midst of a high functioning life at Yale, Stanford and the literary world, she would find herself floored by an overwhelming terror that 'spread like blood', or convinced that she was dead, or that her friends were robots, or spiders were eating holes in her brain. What happens when your whole conception of yourself is turned upside down? When you're aware of what is occurring to you, but unable to do anything about it?
Written with immediacy and unflinching honesty, this visceral and moving book is Wang's story, as she steps both inside and outside of her condition to bring it to light. Following her own diagnosis and the many manifestations of schizophrenia in her life, she ranges over everything from how we label mental illness to her own use of fashion and make-up to present herself as high-functioning, from the failures of the higher education system to how factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease compounded her experiences. Wang's analytical, intelligent eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with haunting personal narrative. The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core and provides unique insight into a condition long misdiagnosed and much misunderstood.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141991535
Number of pages: 224
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 14 mm
Weight: 166 g
Language: English
Wang's story is devastating... she is wise and eloquent, and heart-rendingly honest on the effects of the illness - Spectator
Wang writes about how mental illness is framed both within the medical system and by society...The word ["schizophrenia"] is often misused and trivialised...Wang's narrative, without pulling punches, goes a long way to dispelling such views...many would benefit from this book and I highly recommend it, both for the author's clarity and, ultimately, her expression of hope - The Lancet
Fragmented by design, the book's structure heightens the immediacy of its testimony - New Yorker
Impressive ... we learn what schizophrenia feels like from the inside. Wang strikes a perfect balance between explanation and implication - Brooklyn Rail
In Wang's kaleidoscopic essays, memoir has been shattered into sliding and overlapping pieces. . . . The images and insights Wang summons are . . . often dazzling, and well worth the reconstructive work. . . . Her multifaceted arguments can be gratifyingly mind-expanding. - The New York Times Review of Books
[An] utterly unique book of essays: a deep, illuminating, and explosively written dive into a life of living with mental illness - Entertainment Weekly
Wang . . . is an implicitly trustworthy guide to this netherworld of psychosis and chronic illness. . . . Her characteristic nuance more often carries the ring of wisdom, hard won - Washington Post
The Collected Schizophrenias is riveting, honest, and courageously allows for complexities in the reality of what living with illness is like--and we are lucky to have it in the world - NPR
[The Collected Schizophrenias is] resoundingly intelligent, often unexpectedly funny, questioning, fearless and peerless, as Wang makes for brilliant company on 13 difficult walks through largely uncharted territory - Los Angeles Times
Going beyond her personal story, Wang applies her experience as a former lab researcher at Stanford to add an analytical perspective to The Collected Schizophrenias, which gives readers an inside look into the often-misunderstood intricacies of mental health - Time
And Away...
The Make-Believe
Said the Dead
Enough Said
The Trading Game
Stone Lands
Things I Took from the Dark
A Hymn to Life
Children of Radium
Raising Hare
Kitchen Confidential
Mother Mary Comes To Me
Diddly Squat: The Farmer's Dog
Careless People
I'm Glad My Mom Died
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