A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise, Sandy Allen
A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise, Sandy Allen
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A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise
A True Story About Schizophrenia

Author: Sandy Allen, Pete Simonelli

Narrator: Sandy Allen

Unabridged: 7 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/23/2018


Synopsis

“Compelling…A bracing work of art and a loving tribute” (Los Angeles Times), this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before.

Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob was “crazy,” that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than Sandy had been alive, and what little Sandy knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed Sandy his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences more than sixty, single-spaced pages, the often-incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a “true story” about being “labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic,” and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world.

“Searing” (O, The Oprah Magazine), “enthralling” (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis), and “a marvel” (Esquire), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise shows how Sandy translated Bob’s autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Sandy also shares background information about their family, the culturally explosive time and place of their uncle’s formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable.

“Thrilling…Gorgeous…a watershed in empathetic adaptation of ‘outsider’ autobiography” (The New Republic), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is a dazzlingly, daringly written book that’s poised to change conversations about schizophrenia and mental illness overall.

About Sandy Allen

Sandy Allen is a writer, speaker, editor and teacher. Their essays and features stories have been published by BuzzFeed News, CNN Opinion, Bon Appétit's Healthyish, and Pop-Up Magazine. Sandy was previously BuzzFeed News's deputy features editor. They also founded and ran the online-only literary quarterly Wag's Revue. Sandy's work focuses on constructs of normalcy, including psychiatric disability and gender. Sandy is non-binary trans. Originally from Muir Beach, CA, they live in the Catskills. A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is their first book. For more, visit HelloSandyAllen.com


Reviews

Goodreads review by Doug

This book had potential, but unfortunately, there are far too many elements that just don't work. Others have mentioned the problems with appropriation and filtering Bob's story through the author's sensibility, and while those are certainly relevant, the larger issues are that the story is repetiti......more

This is a different look at a life of mental illness told in kind of a unique way, as it was typed over a long time by the man with the illness. Then much later the manuscript was mailed without warning to his niece who'd recently finished college and was starting out as a writer. She was floored by......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca

Lots of others have mentioned this book's level of appropriation, so I won't go into that. What I will go into is the writing. I think what Allen set out to do (transcribe the writings of her Uncle's life story as a person with schizophrenia) was a difficult task that could have been handled differe......more

Goodreads review by Carrie

Loved it. So glad the author was brave enough to get it done. It’s so carefully protective of the truth and of the ambivalence of many accounts thereof. It could have been many times more bloated, but it has a constant tone of humility and economy. Only complaint was that a lot of stuff was summarize......more