Tags
21st Century, A Book of Light, abuse, Autism, Autobiography, bipolar disorder, Cancer, contemporary, Culture, Emotional writing, Family, Grief, India, Jerry Pinto, Mental Illness, Schizophrenia, Short Stories
Edited by Jerry Pinto
“In fiction and in cinema, we see people retreat into the family when they are hurt. There they are surrounded by love and warmth and they can lick their wounds in peace. But what if it is your mother who is wounding you and then soothing you by turns? What if it is your father who seems distant or desolate, living in a dark tower that you cannot enter?… What of the family where someone commits suicide and leaves behind a vacuum, a space that seems to mock every attempt at love and holding on? What of the family which must institutionalize one of its members? How does it manage?’
In 2012, Jerry Pinto published his debut novel, Em and the Big Hoom, which drew upon his experience of living with a mother who was bipolar. It touched thousands of readers, among them many who had similar experiences—of living with someone with a mental illness or infirmity. Some of these readers shared their stories with him and agreed to share them with the world. A Book of Light collects these harrowing yet moving, even empowering, stories—about the terror and majesty of love; the bleakness and unexpected grace of life; the fragility and immense strength of the human mind.” -goodreads
Published: 2016 by Speaking Tiger
Read and Reviewed: October 2018
I happened upon this book by chance at my last trip to the local used book store and it seemed interesting so I picked it up. I was not prepared for how these stories would affect me. I couldn’t really put the book down once I picked it up.
Initially, the idea of the book made me a little wary, fearing that the mentally ill family members might all be demonized. That didn’t exactly happen here, but gave several voices the opportunity to show the personal difficulty of addressing mental health in modern India. It’s even more stigmatized there than in the US. I felt terribly for most of the families in this collection. Most of the tales are heartbreakingly sad and end in the mentally ill family member’s untimely death or disappearance. I think the only light hearted story was the one with the parents of the boy with Autism.
Every story is told by a family member of someone who had lived with a severe mental illness. Most of the mentally ill people had a form of bipolar disorder but there were at least two schizophrenics, a cancer patient, and a boy with autism. These stories all took place between the 1970s and 2016 in India. For some of the families in the story, treatment wasn’t possible or extremely difficult to come by. It’s very sad that the authors had to live with parents, siblings, children, and other relatives who suffered but couldn’t receive treatment due to severe social stigma and lack of access to medicines/treatments.
Some of the stories were more similar to what people would be familiar with in the US. Most of the writers in this collection came from middle class and educated backgrounds so their experiences were similar to what might be experienced by a middle class family with mentally ill members in America. They had accounts of pill regimes, ECT treatments, and facing the various symptoms of an illness together.
I gave this collection 4 stars! This book will tear your heart out but if you are an empathetic person or have been affected by mental illness at all in your life, whether its a family member, dear friend, or yourself, this story collection will speak volumes. Mental health is a global issue and affects people from all nations, races, classes, genders, religions, and sexual orientations. While this gave me some hope, it just clarifies to me that the governments around the globe have to do a better job of providing good mental healthcare their people all around the world.
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