My Brother's Madness

by Paul Pines

"My Brother's Madness "is based on the author's relationship with his brother-who had a psychotic breakdown in his late forties-and explores the unfolding of two intertwined lives and the nature of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931896348
• ISBN13: 9781931896344
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Curbstone Press
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, well-written book. A classic memoir

Don't let the title scare you." My Brother's Madness" by Paul Pines is a page turner. The story ricochets gracefully from past to present. This gives the insight into the pressures of growing up in an unstable environment. These jumps forward and backward are clear and easy to follow and add a level of suspense. This memoir is not your typical psychological thriller. It's a factual one! Told with a an elegant simplicity and a sustaining sense of humor, "My Brother's Madness" is a pleasure -- disturbing, yes, but a pleasure. Upon reaching the end, one feels the most astounding thing is not that one brother cracked up, but that the other somehow made it through. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

A Monumental Work

"My Brother's Madness" Paul Pines' "My Brother's Madness" is a remarkable portrayal of both the causes and effects of his brother Claude's schizophrenia and of his own never-ending efforts to help him survive it, if not conquer it. Pines paints a vast panorama of two lives, of their genetic, familial, societal and personal elements, told in the fascinating day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year details of a sometimes rewarding, often frustrating and frequently exasperating ---but always loving---brotherhood. There are many times you want to laugh, yet you know that soon you will have to cry. Reading the memoir, I was transported into the brothers' family, into the minds and hearts of their parents and of the brothers themselves. I thought their every thought, lived their every experience, felt their every emotion. And, like the author, as much as I learned, I came to know that there is much I will never know. Which makes me appreciate his efforts even more. "My Brother's Madness" is a monumental work. Howard Rayfiel

My Brother's Madness

In My Brother Madness, Paul Pines shares the story of his brother's Claude's declining mental health. The book's structure allows the reader to get know Paul and Claude by alternating between childhood memories and scenes of Claude as an adult descending into and struggling with mental illness. It doesn't seem as if the childhood memories were shared to analyze or explain the why of Claude's illness. Instead, the reader is left to draw their own conclusions as they come to know Paul and Claude and ties that bind them. Without protraying himself as hero or savior, Pines shares the guilt, frustration and challenges of caring for his brother. Amazingly, at the same time,he unassumingly inspires the reader to see the ways these disproportionate relationships can positively shape and add value to our lives. Most importantly, is the fact that this book does truly achieve the old cliché of "putting a real face to mental illness". Something Claude himself reluctantly did. We celebrate Claude's success and feel the pain when he stumbles. After reading My Brother's Madness, you will not soon forget the beauty and the burden loving sometimes brings.

Close to Home

For more than twenty years I have shouldered the responsibility of caring for a younger brother who is afflicted by crippling depression and sometimes delusions. Indeed, caring for him has been a burden on my entire family and frankly a source of personal anger and also shame. From time to time I have sought counsel about our family tragedy, but kind words have not provided much relief. Recently a friend suggested that I read Paul Pines' new book, My Brother's Madness. I stayed up through the night poring through the pages. It is impossible to put this book down, or it was for me. Pines writes at the pace of a gripping thriller and yet his subject is human and wrenching. Anyone would like this book, but for someone like myself, who has lived with mental illness, the book is an indispensable source of wisdom. He's written a great book. Steve S. New Jersey

My Brother's Madness

Paul Pines bared his life story in "My Brother's Madness" in a way that few would have the courage to expose. When I finished the book, I felt blown away. In reading his work, I found parts of my own life unfolding in ways I never truly understood before. His description of burying himself in books and the reasons for that gave me a common bond with Paul. I always held the belief that I buried myself in books to lock out the dysfunctional world I had to exist in as a child. Now I understand a different meaning: trying to find the relationships I needed but did not exist around me in real life. Instead, I was looking for them in imaginary worlds between two covers. "My Brother's Madness," is a book I had difficulty in putting down. Paul Pines has a special kind of empathy rarely found in today's social order, which flows with every page turned in this truly remarkable work.