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There are currently 42 member reviews
for He Wanted the Moon
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Jinny K. (Fremont, CA)
Cuckoo's Nest Revisited
I was disappointed in this book, as it did not seem to live up to the subtitle, as far as medical genius. Except for the backstory by the protaganist's daughter, most of the book consisted of journal entries by the doctor in various phases of psychosis. His theories and research were barely mentioned. It was very sad as far as his hopeless medical situation and the stigma and dreadful treatment in that era, but the journal entries became somewhat tedious. It was easy to find compassion for him and his daughter who never really know him, but the book itself was not engaging to me.
Book clubs might find this interesting for discussions.
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Ann B. (Kernville, CA)
Enlightening but monotone study of a father's bi-polarity
While this book offers a unique and enlightening look into what is now known as bi-polar disorder, I wanted it to be more compelling in terms of its narrative. The father's journal was fascinating and both parts of the book -- his and Ms Baird's -- featured solid writing. But there was little craft. It laid the story out in a straightforward manner and thereby suffered from a monotone. I wanted less explanation and more reflection in Ms Baird's section.
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Kelli R. (Birmingham, AL)
Author's Quest to Know Her Father
I felt immediate empathy for Mimi Baird and her desire to know the physician father who "disappeared" from her life when she was 6 years old, and was dead 15 years later at the age of 55. Despite only having a few years with him, there is an indelible bond between father and daughter, a sense of loss that haunts Mimi throughout her life, and the writing and publication of this book was her "quest to know him." The book includes a fascinating and substantial manuscript written by her father in the 1940s which describes in excruciating detail his (mis)treatment as a manic depressive by a state mental institution. Dr. Perry Baird's account swings from the voice of a brilliant Harvard-educated physician examining his own illness ("the brutalities one encounters in state and city psychopathic hospitals must be the by-product of the fear and superstition with which mentally ill patients are regarded") to the voice of a seriously delusional man in the throes of his manic-depression. The book as a whole, however, feels a bit piecemeal and incomplete. In the end, I was left wanting more even though I knew that Mimi Baird had given us everything she had - it just wasn't that much.
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Vivian H. (Winchester, VA)
Fascinating & Disturbing
This book is a bald, brutal, deeply disturbing look at mental illness from the perspective of the ultimate insider – Harvard educated physician Perry Baird who suffered from bi-polar disorder and wrote about his experiences in mental institutions during the 1930's through the 1950's.
Mimi Baird was 6 years old when her father disappeared from her life in 1944 during a time when nobody spoke about mental illness. People were locked away and forgotten. Her mother refused to talk about it, divorced Baird while he was institutionalized, and remarried quickly. In 1994 – 35 years after her father's death – Mimi discovered her father had written about his barbaric treatment at the hands of mid 20th Century mental health professional and had conducted his own research into the potential physiological causes of the mental illness.
The book is really two stories: Dr. Baird's spiral into the vortex of mental illness and Mimi Baird's search for the father she lost.
I found this book fascinating and heart rending. But I can't say I liked it. Reading the chapters that described how people in mental institutions were treated felt painful and nauseating as if a bandage stuck to a wound was being yanked off and pulling the scab with the bandage.
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Jan Z. (Jefferson, SD)
He Wanted the Moon
As the reader, I was never sure as to whether or not I should believe all of Dr. Baird's account of his hospitalizations in two mental institutions 1940's, which was somewhat disconcerting. I liked the book, I gave it a 3, but I was mostly interested in the daughter's search for her father, and what his absence had done to her. I admired her final determination to give him a voice and record his life as well as she could from his own record, correspondence, and medical records. She states that to finish the book was one thing she most wanted to do in life. I am glad I got to read her final product.
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Sally H. (Geneva, OH)
He Wanted the Moon
This book tells a tragic story of lives destroyed by the mental illness of the author's father. It is a stark reminder of how poorly understood mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder were, even as recently as the 1940s. I expected more information about Dr. Baird's own research into what was then known as manic depression, although I realize that there may not have been any since his research was halted by his illness. I felt that the book was too detailed (I don't think that including all of Dr. Baird's descriptions of his hospitalizations added much, especially since they were not particularly realistic) and not detailed enough (the book covered only a couple of years of Dr. Baird's life and skimmed over that of the author). While understanding that these memories and the things she learned about her father were extremely important to the author, I am not sure who this book would appeal to.
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Lisa G. (Riverwoods, IL)
Not For the Faint of Heart
I have no doubt the author accurately portrays the manic depressive illness of her father in the 1940's and the horrendous treatment he was given as evidenced by his writings which served as the basis of this book. I am glad the author got some closure as to why her father was not in her life. I knew it would be a tough read but I got bogged down in the details of each hospitalization and just didn't care. Definitely not recommended for a book club. And certainly not for anyone dealing with mental illness.
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