A Voice for Independent Authors
― E.A. BUCCHIANERI
REVIEWING TODAY: 113 DAYS BY BRADLEY GOOD
You know what can be scary? Not criminal insanity itself (a kind of alternative, virtual reality for the sufferer,) but the mild kind of insanity diagnosed as Bi-polar Disorder that may lead to criminal indictment even as you remain unaware you have it. Bradley Good describes this horror in his immensely detached yet truly frightening account, 113 Days. Early on, the reader may be apathetic, as Mr. Good’s apparent self-regard may strike one as too self-absorbed and too blaming of others for his inordinately-frequent, life-obstructing predicaments. My advice: bear with him. Engage your instinct to give “the benefit of the doubt.” The apparent normality Mr. Good conveys is meant to show exactly how elusive is one’s ability to assess his own mental health.
Stability of mind can be fragile, as Bradley Good demonstrates so perfectly in his reflective book, 113 Days. It can alter gradually enough to defy easy detection. Like a frog in boiling water: something is different, but what? The scariest part of Mr. Good’s truly enthralling account is the one titled, 11 Days in Beijing, where a homeless and financially destitute narrator wanders the Chinese city unaware his faculties are failing, that his perceptions are paranoid and misleading, that people are desperately worried for his safety, and yet he believes everything is normal despite the occasional memory lapse, like: where did I leave all of my possessions? By the time Mr. Good is indicted in the States for felony assault, only by fluke does he get diagnosed and treated. His 113 days in jail mirrors similar accounts of those assigned to hell. But true hell is not knowing you’re not quite sane. Bradley Good makes you live this hell, and it is truly scary, until redemption.
Widget not in any sidebars
Joel R. Dennstedt – Top Reviewer for Readers’ Favorite
