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Book Summary and Reviews of Zig-Zag Boy by Tanya Frank

Zig-Zag Boy by Tanya Frank

Zig-Zag Boy

A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood

by Tanya Frank

  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (26):
  • Published:
  • Feb 2023, 224 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

A compassionate, heartrending memoir of a mother's quest to accept her son's journey through psychosis.

One night in 2009, Tanya Frank finds her nineteen-year-old son, Zach―gentle and full of promise―in the grip of what the psychiatrists would label a psychotic break. Suddenly and inexplicably, Tanya is thrown into a parallel universe: Zach's world, where the phones are bugged, his friends have joined the Mafia, and helicopters are spying on his family.

In the years following Zach's shifting psychiatric diagnoses, Tanya goes to war for her son, desperate to find the right answer, the right drug, the right doctor to bring him back to reality. She struggles to navigate archaic mental healthcare systems, first in California and then in her native London during lockdown. Meanwhile, the boy she raised―the chatty, precocious dog-lover, the teenager who spent summers surfing with his big brother, the UCLA student―suffers the effects of multiple hospitalizations, powerful drugs that blunt his emotions, therapies that don't work, and torturous nights on the streets. Holding on to startling moments of hope and seeking solace in nature and community, Tanya learns how to abandon her fears for the future and accept the mysteries of her son's altered states.

With tenderness, lyricism, and generous candor, this compelling story conveys the power of a mother's love. Zig-Zag Boy is both a moving lamentation for things lost and a brave testament to the people we become in difficult circumstances.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A heartfelt memoir about family, mental illness, and unconditional love."—Kirkus Reviews

"This is a bracingly beautiful account of learning to live with uncertainty in turbulent times."—Shelf Awareness

"Tanya Frank's Zig-Zag Boy starts by chronicling a mother's nightmare as her promising son falls into psychosis but ends up being far more than the story of what happens when we fear for the life of someone we love. A searing indictment of the medical industrial complex across continents, Frank's memoir also offers a battle cry for new ways of looking at mental health care and reveals the deep urgency of valuing oneself enough to dare to heal in a perpetually uncertain world."—Gina Frangello, author of Blow Your House Down: A Memoir of Family, Feminism, and Treason

"Zig-Zag Boy takes us to the heart of loving and parenting a child in the most intensive and often heartbreaking way. Tanya Frank's book is marked by wonderful storytelling, a wry sense of humor, and a determination to tell the truth no matter what. You will get lost in this story, and be better for it."—Emily Rapp Black, New York Times best-selling author of The Still Point of the Turning World and Sanctuary

"In unforgettable imagery and nuanced prose, Tanya Frank gives us an incredible journey―from a parent's worst fear to an opening in the world―through patient observance and love."—Susan Straight, author of Mecca and In the Country of Women

"Zig-Zag Boy is a wonder. I loved this book and the family at the heart of it. Tanya Frank masterfully tells her family's story with as much grace, dignity, and compassion as she exhibited while living it. This is a beautiful book."—Mark Lukach, author of My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward

This information about Zig-Zag Boy was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Lesa R. (Joliet, IL)

Zig-Zag Boy
I really enjoyed this sometimes heartbreaking book as I really like memoirs about peoples experiences with situations like Tanya's. I used to know someone a lot like Zach and so a lot of the things she wrote about I could relate to. It's amazing what some people have to go through in order to get a proper diagnosis and treatment plan for themselves or their loved one especially in a case like this where Zach had no control over his illness and could not help himself. As I mentioned, it brought back memories for me of someone I used to know who was schizophrenic. When he took his meds he was fine. When not, well that's another story. And I am not here to tell my story. Just comment that I, in a much smaller way than Tanya obviously, can relate to what she went through and I appreciate her sharing her very brave story with the world and I was happy to read her words.

Alison (Hamilton, NJ)

It Could Happen to You
Tanya Frank is a likable everymom who finds herself faced with disaster. Her child's sudden illness cannot be healed or even clearly defined. As mothers, we know these possibilities exist, but it's easier to believe they only happen to other people. Frank's memoir is a clear, intelligent narrative of the lengths any of us would go to for our children and the courage to live our own lives despite that struggle.

As the mother of a kid with special needs, I identified with the feeling of my child's life possibilities narrowed overnight by a diagnosis. I also appreciated this memoir's insight into what it means to have a mental break, how some people live with the condition, and the effects of psychotic drugs. Frank's firsthand account really normalized this misunderstood diagnosis and brought to light all of the difficulties brought on by both the illness and the treatment.

Throughout the memoir, we're reminded that Frank is not just Zak's mother, but a person in her own right. Her love of marine mammals gives her a sense of purpose and identity apart from motherhood.

I often get the same feeling at the end of a memoir that there should be more, and Zig-Zag Boy was no exception. I truly hope Tanya Frank and her son find their way to peace.

Susan L. (Alexandria, VA)

All too familiar
This is a heartbreaking tale of a mother's journey into caring for a child who has lost touch with reality. It brought back so many emotions of staring down the same path with my son. Frank found a way to move forward despite the chaos and fear. I applaud her bravery and honesty in this book. It is a beautiful tale for those of us on a similar path. More mothers need to claim their stories and struggles.

Dianne S. (East Meadow, NY)

A mother, son and psychosis, the ties that bind
In Zig-Zag boy by Tanya Frank, the author eloquently describes mothering Zach, a young man suffering from schizoaffective disorder As her son becomes more and more detached from reality, Frank must learn to ground herself and manage her own despair. She turns to nature but that calm is often shattered by Zach's increasing inability to cope on his own.
Frank soon learns that psychosis is never cured, only managed. She watches as a variety of doctors prescribe and often over prescribe an amazing number of drugs. The drugs come with multiple side effects that result in Zach refusing to continue taking them.
As readers we come to care about both mother and son, but while Zach's journey is never linear and exudes hopelessness, it is Tanya who we watch with careful hope. She finds other parents who travel her path, she works hard to maintain her relationship with her wife Nance and becomes a docent in a seal sanctuary. Tanya is successful in her endeavors but as she notes she is always afraid. It is this fear that compels her to find yet another treatment option for her son in first California then England.
This book occasionally loses it's way as it careens from one location to another. My head spun as Tanya moves constantly and veers from trying to over manage Zach to seeking to leave him on his own. I soon came to realize that occasional chaos is the definition and essence of this mother's life. It is an old cliché that a parents' happiness is diluted by your most unhappy child. We watch Tanya struggle to overcome that reality. This book brings us along and we learn to care, fear and become invested in the journey. This excellent memoir, written with love, humor and insight brings us into the struggle. It is well worth reading and caring.

Amber H. (Asheville, NC)

Beautiful and Heartbreaking
Well written memoir focusing on how mental illness impacts the family system. Tanaya Frank also describes the challenges of the mental health system in both US and UK - many times, these systems are set up for failure. A difficult, yet important read to better understand mental health challenges and the need to address how we support them.

Susan S. (Springdale, AR)

Zig-Zag Boy
I loved this book, and I hated it. It is so real and so raw. Tanya Frank offers up a first-person reality story of how an entire family suffers when one member is afflicted with mental illness. Truthfully, this could be any family with a member who requires constant care and/or vigilance, from a child born with a severe disability to an adult who suffers from dementia. Caregivers often lose themselves in the struggle to just make it thru another day. I felt angry with Zach for seemingly refusing to help himself and his inability to recognize the extremes to which his mother had gone to keep him safe. I had to remind myself that he was not GIVING her a hard time, he was HAVING a hard time. I've found myself taking a closer look at the homeless in my community and wondering if any of them could be like Zach, living on the street rather than accepting mind numbing drugs or institutionalization.
Mental illness is invisible, and people who suffer are mistakenly expected to live "as if": as if a little pill can make it go away; as if they can just snap out of it; as if they should be able to conform. I have nothing but respect for Ms. Frank. I don't think I would have the grit to do what she has done for her son. Keep watching those seals!

...20 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Tanya Frank

Tanya Frank received her MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of California, Riverside. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. She lives in London with her wife.

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