Reviews
"Mira Bartok’s Memory Palace is a beautifully crafted tale of life with an absent father and a mentally ill mother. As the story unfolds, you’ll see how fine the line is between gentle artistic creativity and debilitating madness. With each new vignette, Mira reveals the wonder and the horror of life in a house ruled by insanity. As the daughters get older, the mother devolves, making her way from world-class musician to paranoid homeless schizophrenic. Despite that tragedy, Mira’s spirit never fails to shine through. You’ll wish you could pick her up, like a little lost kitten, but in the end, she makes it on her own." --John Elder Robison, author of Look Me in the Eye, “A book of aching beauty and compassion, that circles around the essence of what it is to be alive.â€� Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and The Ticking is the Bomb: A Memoir, Bart k juggles a handful of profound themes: how to undertake a creative life ...how we remember ...how one says goodbye to a loved one in a manner that might redeem in some small way a life and a relationship blighted by psychosis; and, most vividly and harrowingly, how our society and institutions throw mental illness back in the hands of family members, who are frequently helpless to deal with the magnitude of the terrifying problems it generates. On all counts, it's an engrossing read." -- Elle, "In lyrically elegant prose, The Memory Palace explores not just relationships but the slippery nature of memory itself." - O magazine, " The Memory Palace is almost a fairy tale: two little girls grow up under the spell of their mother's madness. But it really did happen, once upon a time, and Mira Bart k uses her considerable powers of recollection and compassion to understand her family and to present them to readers as complete, loved human beings. This is an extraordinary book." Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, The Memory Palace is not so much a palace of memories as a complex web of bewitching verbal and visual images, memories, dreams, true stories and rambling excerpts from the author's mentally ill mother's notebooks. It is an extraordinary mix. -- The Washington Post, "A disturbing, mesmerizing personal narrative about growing up with a brilliant but schizophrenic mother...Richly textured, compassionate and heartbreaking." -- Kirkus , starred review, "A book of aching beauty and compassion, that circles around the essence of what it is to be alive." -Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and The Ticking is the Bomb: A Memoir, "...a haunting, almost patchwork, narrative that lyrically chronicles a complex mother-daughter relationship. "-- Publishers Weekly , starred review, "A heartbreaking, exquisitely told story of a daughter's struggle to find beauty and order in the distorted, chaotic world created by her mother's delusions."-Jeannette Walls, bestselling author of The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses, Among the plethora of books now available by the children of parents with schizophrenia, The Memory Palace stands out. Elegantly written, the book details what it is like to grow up with a mother with schizophrenia and sensitively assesses the long-term effects her mother's illness had on both her and her sister. Strongly recommended. --E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., author of The Insanity Offense, "Mira Bartok's Memory Palace is a beautifully crafted tale of life with an absent father and a mentally ill mother. As the story unfolds, you'll see how fine the line is between gentle artistic creativity and debilitating madness. With each new vignette, Mira reveals the wonder and the horror of life in a house ruled by insanity. As the daughters get older, the mother devolves, making her way from world-class musician to paranoid homeless schizophrenic. Despite that tragedy, Mira's spirit never fails to shine through. You'll wish you could pick her up, like a little lost kitten, but in the end, she makes it on her own." --John Elder Robison, author of Look Me in the Eye, BartÓk juggles a handful of profound themes: how to undertake a creative life ...how we remember ...how one says goodbye to a loved one in a manner that might redeem in some small way a life and a relationship blighted by psychosis; and, most vividly and harrowingly, how our society and institutions throw mental illness back in the hands of family members, who are frequently helpless to deal with the magnitude of the terrifying problems it generates. On all counts, it's an engrossing read." -- Elle, "...like the cabinet of wonders that is a frequent motif here, Bartok's memory palace contains some rare, distinctive and genuinely imaginative treasures. " -- The New York Times Book Review
