The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok

Opening the pages of an author's memoir depicting a tumultuous life with a mother with schizophrenia should be like opening Pandora's Box.  The craziness and disfunction should come flying off the pages out of control.  And with all of that craziness and disfunction, elements of shock, disgust, horror, and revelation should be the expected, clear consequences for both the author and the reader.  Saddly, the only consequence that struck me was shock.  My shock was not in response to the author's experiences with schizophrenia, rather, it was shock resulting from the author's choice in telling her story in a mellow, low-key tone.

Dad moves out and leaves the family.  Grandpa mentally, verbally, and physically abuses his wife, daughter, and grandchildren.  Grandma quietly lives in her bubble trying to keep the peace.  And Mira and her sister Rachel just try to make it from one day to the next.  As the sisters enter college, they change their names to avoid unwelcome housecalls from their mother, who conjures delusions of people trying to hurt her and her children because she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.  It's seemingly the perfect recipe for the next great American novel ~ families overcoming unfortunate circumstances and tragedy.  The recipe contains the major characters and their roles, but it's missing a key ingredient ~ suspense leading to that climatic moment in a tragic tale that makes readers say to themselves, "How the hell did anyone ever survive this?"  I so wanted that moment in this memoir.  I wanted to gasp in horror. But the novel never afforded me that opportunity.  The facts and circumstances of the author's story are told in a matter-of-fact, clinical manner, which made it difficult to sympathize with the broken pieces of her life.  Unfortunately, The Memory Palace did not hold a majestic place in my own memory.