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Zusatztext NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Vonnegut has written a searingly honest account of a particular kind of hell and managing to triumph despite everything—a true thing of value.” —San Francisco Chronicle “[Mark] Vonnegut shares with his late father a knack for throwing down sentences—many sentences—of such naked wit and intelligence they make a reader stop for an extra beat.” —San Jose Mercury News “[A] remarkable new memoir . . . many fascinating accounts of what it was like growing up with a still-struggling writer father.” —The Boston Globe “Mark Vonnegut tells a strange and funny story in a strong! tensile style—at their frequent best! his sentences are like shards of colored glass: beautiful! but liable to cause damage.” —Palm Beach Post “Mordantly witty! slightly subversive.” —Publishers Weekly Informationen zum Autor Mark Vonnegut is the only son of the late Kurt Vonnegut and Jane Cox Vonnegut and the author of The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity , an ALA Notable Book. A full-time practicing pediatrician, he lives in Massachusetts with his wife and son. Klappentext More than thirty years after the publication of his acclaimed memoir The Eden Express, Mark Vonnegut continues his story in this searingly funny, iconoclastic account of coping with mental illness, finding his calling, and learning that willpower isn't nearly enough. Here is Mark's life childhood as the son of a struggling writer, as well as the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital. At the late age of twenty-eight and after nineteen rejections, he is finally accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gains purpose, a life, and some control over his condition. There are the manic episodes, during which he felt burdened with saving the world, juxtaposed against the real-world responsibilities of running a pediatric practice.Ultimately a tribute to the small, daily, and positive parts of a life interrupted by bipolar disorder, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is a wise, unsentimental, and inspiring book that will resonate with generations of readers. Chapter One A Brief Family History It's good to have a sixth gear, but watch out for the seventh one. If you think too well outside the box, you might find yourself in a little room without much in it. The arts are not extracurricular. One hundred thirty-nine years ago, my great-grandfather Bernard Vonnegut, fifteen years old, described as less physically robust than his two older brothers, probably asthmatic, started crying while doing inventory at the family hardware store. When his parents asked what was wrong, he said he didn't know but he thought he wanted to be an artist. "I don't want to sell nails," he sobbed. Maybe his parents should have beaten him for being ungrateful, but they wanted their son to be happy and the business was successful enough that they could hire someone else to do inventory. He became an apprentice stonecutter and then went to Europe to study art and architecture. He designed many buildings in Indianapolis that still stand today. He drew beautifully, made sculptures and furniture. He was also happily married and had three children, one of whom was Kurt senior, my grandfather, who was known as "Doc" and who also became an architect. Doc could also draw and paint and make furniture. He made wonderful chessboards, one of which he gave to me when I was nine. When he was sixty, Doc was pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign. The cop was astonished to notice that his driver's license had expired twenty years earlier. "So shoot me," said Doc. At the end of his life, which had included financial ruin in the Great Depression, his wife's barbit...
