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There are currently 42 member reviews
for He Wanted the Moon
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Christopher R. (Brooklyn, NY)
Genius abated
I feel very fortunate to have received this brilliant book from Bookbrowse. It provides a very unique voice to mental illness and the many ways that it affects the lives of the patient and those around him or her. Mimi Baird brings us her father's manuscript recounting several stages of his mental illness. In it, Dr. Perry Baird illustrates manic depression from the perspective of both patient and physician. He arouses introspection regarding how the mentally ill have been treated and continue to be treated. I found similarities between this book and Susanna Kaysen's "Girl, Interrupted." In that book, the author exposes how the handling of the mentally ill at treatment facilities derives from the stigmas and stereotypes that are perpetuated about them. Mimi Baird's book similarly accomplishes this. Additionally, she elucidates how Dr. Perry Baird tried to find a treatment for his own disease. She describes experiments that were abated and went largely ignored for many years due to his mental illness. Her father's brilliant mind shines through despite his mental illness and it is a tragedy that his research was stopped short. Who knows what he could have discovered had he been able to continue his work. The latter part of the book gets into how Mimi's own life was affected by her dad's condition as well as her quest to bring his story to the masses. His story is a very important one, and one that I highly recommend to anyone interested in the examination of mental illness.
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Rebecca R. (Las Vegas, NV)
This Touched My Heart
This book caught my interest the minute I read the first sentence. So many adult children miss their parents immensely when they pass away, and it is difficult to imagine what this author felt "losing" her father through her mother's rejection of a partner with manic depression and remarriage. There is something very haunting about this book, and I feel like I also learned something about manic depression. The passage on page 89 particularly tugged at my heart: " the father wishing one really didn't know what one was doing. Then one's consciousness would not hold one responsible for what one had done..." I guess in my ignorance I thought that people in their manic phase did not remember what they had done. There are many heart wrenching passages, like page 146 where he lay face down in ditches in hide.
At the end of the book I found myself going back to look at the old photograph of the author as a toddler, outside with her smiling father and pet dog. I did not know these people personally, and yet tears came to my eyes as if I did. That is how much this book affected me.
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Sandra H. (St. Cloud, MN)
We Still Have Much to Learn
I sighed when this book arrived wondering why I had put it down as one of my choices. And then I began to read it. I finished it profoundly affected by the bittersweet life of Dr. Perry Baird.
The first 2/3rds of the book is Perry Baird's manuscript describing his life in various mental institutions written both when he was rational and when he was in a manic state. That Dr. Baird fully understood how manic depression(which we now know as bipolar) affects one, makes this section especially riveting as we enter the mind of this brilliant man both when it is rational and when it is manic. At times I felt as if his experience was happening in the 19th century.
The second part of the book details his daughter's childhood memories of her father and through her research an understanding of his disease and it's effects on him, his family and his colleagues. Mimi Baird's persistence in learning her father's story helps us readers understand how far we have come in diagnosing mental illness and how much we still must do to help those who gave it.
Brilliant and troubled, Perry Baird could not overcome a disease he had researched himself. As a friend of his early days said to his daughter Mimi, "He wanted the moon."
I strongly recommend book groups to select this book. There is much to discuss and ponder about mental disease and how we think of it and treat it today.
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Bea C. (Liberty Lake, WA)
Manic depression - a first-person account
This is a sad, heartwarming description of manic depression as described by a manic depressive patient, who was himself a renowned doctor. I have never seen so vividly and coherently explained the actual feelings and perceptions of a person while in a manic state. This book goes into the treatments, which were actually a type of torture, of patients in psychiatric hospitals in the 40s. It is also a very sad story of a man isolated from his family and the pain it caused him and his daughter, who grew up wondering about her father all her life. It makes me wish for a cure or at least more help for the poor individuals inflicted with this disease. It could be any one of us.
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Chris H. (Wauwatosa, WI)
He Wanted the Moon
I thank the author of this book for sharing her story. It is told in a wonderfully honest, true, and brave way. I would recommend it to anyone who is touched by any mental disease and especially bipolar disorder. The first part of the book which tells her father's story is remarkable. That her father left such a detailed record of his work and illness is amazing! It gave his daughter a light into her own life.
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Kim L. (Park Ridge, IL)
Sad
I enjoyed reading this book, but found the subject matter to be very sad. The book highlights the difficulties the mentally ill have in our society. Sadly, not that much has changed since the author was alive. It was interesting to read from a mentally ill individuals perspective their thoughts on treatment. The part of the book that I enjoyed the most was the daughter's recollection of past events and how her life was effected.
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Shirley H.
Interesting & Unusual
This is an interesting book that reveals many details about the treatment of mental health issues in the past. I find it especially fascinating that this was all happening to an accomplished professional. An unusual view, interweaving the father/daughter aspect. It is a good read!
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