Kolker not only delves into the history of this family but also the complitated history of schizophrenia, an illness that continues to divide scientists today. The amount of research that has gone into this book is jaw dropping, not least the time that each family member agreed to give to Kolker that allowed him to go into such detail. By far one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.

This is a very interesting and rough account of one familys' disease. Schizophrenia. A disease not talked about a lot at all. What a family, and what a story.

'Hidden Valley Road' is a bit like two books in one; firstly, there's the story of a large family - mum, dad and 12 children and half of the children have schizophrenia (or in one or two cases, other serious mental health issues); secondly, it's the tale of how the USA treated people with mental health issues between the 1960s and today, and how a few brave scientists tried to get to the bottom of what actually causes schizophrenia, and whether it's nature or nurture or maybe even a bit of both.

This is NOT an easy or comfortable read but it is fascinating. It's rather long - although about 15% of it is references and acknowledgements at the end. Oddly, the references are not 'cited' in the usual way during the text which I found rather odd. The book seems to be caught between trying to be popular and trying to be scientifically thorough and I fear at times, it falls somewhere outside either ambition.

We don't have mental health issues in my family and I can't begin to imagine how hard this might be to read if you do. The six sick sons and their off-the-scale behaviour are addressed calmly and clinically and we're left wondering how anybody could have done better by them. They are violent, destructive, possibly murderous, and in at least one case, possibly more, sexually predatory on both their sisters and potentially brothers too. You won't know what to believe but there's lots you can dismiss. It's deeply disturbing.

The parents are 'odd' but at heart, mother Mimi loves her sick boys, potentially more than is good for the daughters and the well-sons. A lifetime of making excuses and allowances for those who are clinically psychotic doesn't leave a lot of space for love and affection. The father swings between an inspiring hero and a dirty philanderer. The family are exceedingly lucky to have good friends - including the Gray family who not only take in the elder daughter to save her from abuse, but also pay for treatment for some of the boys for extended periods.

A family of this size is unusual in today's times. My father was one of 15 - 11 boys, 4 girls - in a 2-bed house in Ireland. My grandfather on the other side was one of 13 and they weren't even Catholics. So large families were not so rare in times gone by but thankfully, my families were not challenged by mental health issues like the subjects of Hidden Valley Road.

There's a lot to learn about large families and mental health - not all of it positive, by a long way. We see how easy it is to get lost in a crowd, and how sometimes people only survive by pretending that nothing's wrong or it's all somebody else's fault. I was quite surprised that the boys were actually fairly well supported by the state with various aid support packages and with clinical treatments and extended periods of incarceration for their own support. As a non-American, I tend to assume that if you haven't got money or connections (and admittedly, the parents were quite well connected) that the state lets the devil take the weak, sick and insane.

I've not read a book like this before. The family represents a case-study in all that can go wrong with the American dream and I'm sure I'll remember this for a long time.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

I have seen this book on my twitter timeline a few times and as soon as I knew it was a favourite of Barack Obama I knew I wanted to read it. Then by a stroke of luck, 100 copies were being given away by Netgalley. Thank you to @QuercusBooks and @bobkolker for this copy of Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family in return for an honest review. Hidden Valley Road is available for you to purchase here.

Description 🔖

This is the story of an American family made up of Mimi and Don Galvin and their twelve children. The children were born between 1945 and 1965; spanning the baby boom era and all were encouraged to be wholesome, hard working, ambitious American citizens.

As the children grew up, the Galvin household descended into chaos with psychotic episode after psychotic episode and by the mid 1970s, six of the twelve children had been diagnosed schizophrenic. Though terrible and heartbreaking for the Galvin family, what they could offer the world was the perfect case for research to better understand mental health illness.

General Thoughts 🤔

What an absolutely fantastic book this is. It’s heart warming, heart breaking and educational all wrapped up in one cover. To begin with, twelve children gives me tremors just thinking about it. I can’t even imagine what managing a household with that many kids would be like. Throw into the mix mental illness in so many of the children and it really is unimaginable. However this book gave such a fantastic insight into what it would have been like from the perspective of the sick children, the well children and the parents.

Every chapter of this book was an education for me. I am vaguely aware of the various forms of treatment for mental illness and the concept of psychotherapy vs medication but reading about this through the true story of a unique family gave the subject context and really struck a chord with me. Being diagnosed in the era that the Galvin boys were, medication seemed to be their only treatment option. It devastated me to read that the same treatment that was supposed to help their sickness, only ended up making some of them sicker and ultimately causing their death.

Any illness is painstakingly difficult for a family, but dealing with an illness with so many unknowns and no clear treatment must feel crippling. I particularly enjoyed that this book didn’t just talk about the pain inflicted on the sick members of the family, but also on those children that were not sick. Mental illness truly does get it’s claws into all involved, not just those who are diagnosed. The fact that this family were able to let the world into their story and their hearts in order to further advance research into prediction, treatment and maybe even eradication of schizophrenia is so very special.

Writing Style ✍️

I sometimes find nonfiction books such as this one difficult to read as I can feel like I’m drowning in technical jargon, science and references. I loved the way that Robert Kolker had all of this, but it was provided to me; the reader, in context. Chapters that discussed research from as early as the 1800s through to current times was contextualised with what the Galvin family were going through and the treatment the Galvin boys were receiving. This brought it all to life and I personally found that I understood it so much more.

I’m sure that working with Robert Kolker to write this book was not easy for the Galvin family and I thought the book was written sympathetically without withholding any of the uncomfortable detail. To have the ability to tell the Galvin family’s story with compassion, ensuring that their legacy is documented for the world is truly remarkable and I have an awful lot of respect for this author for this.

Conclusion & Scoring 🏅

It’s been a while since I have read such a thought provoking and heartrending story and I appreciated every single chapter, page and word in this book. Everyone; whether you have been touched by mental illness or not should read this book and appreciate how far the world has come as well as how far there is left to go. I’m grateful that this book and I crossed paths and I am certain that it will stick with me for a long time.