Overview
Gayle Brandeisās mother disappeared just after Gayle gave birth to her youngest child. Several days later, her body was found: she had hanged herself in the utility closet of a Pasadena parking garage. In this searing, formally inventive memoir, Gayle describes the dissonance between being a new mother, a sweet-smelling infant at her chest, and a grieving daughter trying to piece together what happened, who her mother was, and all she had and hadnāt understood about her.
Around the time of her suicide, Gayleās mother had been working on a documentary about the rare illnesses she thought ravaged her family: porphyria and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. In The Art of Misdiagnosis, taking its title from her motherās documentary, Gayle braids together her own narration of the charged weeks surrounding her motherās suicide, transcripts of her motherās documentary, research into delusional and factitious disorders, and Gayleās own experience with misdiagnosis and illness (both fabricated and real). Slowly and expertly, The Art of Misdiagnosis peels back the complicated layers of deception and complicity, of physical and mental illness in Gayleās family, to show how she and her mother had misdiagnosed one another.
Gayleās memoir is both a compelling search into the mystery of oneās own family and a life-affirming story of the relief discovered through breaking familial and personal silences. Written by a gifted stylist, The Art of Misdiagnosis delves into the tangled mysteries of disease, mental illness, and suicide and comes out the other side with grace.
This book title, The Art of Misdiagnosis (Surviving My Mother's Suicide), ISBN: 9780807044865, by Gayle Brandeis, published by Beacon Press (November 14, 2017) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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