Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See (2012) by Juliann Garey. Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood executive, leaves his wife and young daughter for a decade to travel the world, giving free reign to the bipolar disorder that he has heretofore been able to conceal. Apparently, Garey has made a career of bipolar disorder, as she is also the editor of Voices of Bipolar Disorder: The Healing Companion. At any rate, she seems to have an intimate knowledge of bipolar disorder and what it can do to a person. The novel unreels in three threads -- Todd's life after he flees his family in 1984, his childhood in late-'50s-early-'60s Los Angeles, and a stint in a psychiatric hospital in 1994. The narrative proceeds in fragments because Todd is undergoing a series of shock treatments which fragment his memory. I found this book harrowing, disturbing to read, as I suffer from mental illness myself, and some of the writing hit too close to home. However, it's a good book and I would like to read it again sometime. Grade: B+