Crazy by Phillips, Linda Vigen (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Crazy by Phillips, Linda Vigen Karen Coats Phillips, Linda Vigen Crazy. Eerdmans, 2014 [320p] Paper ed. ISBN 978-0-8028-5437-7 $9.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7–10 Laura has plenty on her plate already, with a fierce, unrequited crush on Dennis and a serious anxiety problem. Now her mother’s deteriorating mental health moves from sadness to mania, and Laura fears it’s her fault, since it seems as though it’s painting, the pastime that Laura encouraged her to resume, that pushes her mother over the edge into a breakdown. Fearing that she might be similarly affected, Laura shifts from painting to sculpture and finds a sympathetic friend in a local gallery owner who has lost her daughter. Together, the motherless daughter and the daughterless mother work out their sorrow through their art, and between the gallery owner and a budding relationship with Dennis, Laura is emboldened to insist that the adults in her life tell her the truth about her mother’s illness. Although in the book’s setting of 1963, diagnosis and public understanding about mental illness are far from what they are today, readers will still be able to relate to Laura’s fears and frustrations. Phillips’ free-verse poetry has a meaty narrative solidity that, while keeping readers focused on Laura’s emotional state, nevertheless captures the period with material detail like clothing and historical referents such as the assassination of JFK. Though admittedly autobiographical and keyed to a particular trauma, Laura’s story is one that will resonate widely with contemporary readers as they seek avenues of support through their own struggles to remain sensitive to mothers who sometimes disappear, and almost always to some degree disappoint. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois