Book Review

This is a memoir which has taken the world by storm. There is a reason for it to deserve this reputation. This is a story of a self-made woman who is intelligent enough to discover herself and move away from her restrictive upbringing by growing her own set of wings to fly high and not look back. It is a lesson for parents to not be fanatics in parenting their children or they can be at risk of losing their children.

It is basically the story of a father whose mind is at odds with scientific learning, knowledge, and progress of all kinds which is prevalent in the present times. Thus cuts himself and his family off from society to a remote place, far away from all the amenities of modern life, so that his religion is not tainted by any prevailing modern influence. His tragedy is to discover that all his children eventually leave him as they grow up, especially his daughter, who has been so unbelievably patient and uncomplaining throughout her life, so he has nothing left.

One excerpt from the satirist “Ontillas” “On The Folly Of Men” says that “There are three and only three kinds of men in the world: cynics, fanatics, and mandate schoolmen”. In this heart-breaking story we see an example of this quote in the character of a fanatic ‘Dad’ who is mentioned on nearly every page in the book just as vividly as he leaves his mark in his daughter’s mind. Also it’s not too uncommon that many times mental illness is shadowed by pride or over religiosity. Sometimes schizophrenia is masked by talking to God. The signs we see of mental illness are often masked by paranoia or other extreme nonsensical behaviour.

Our society is still working on achieving mental illness as a non taboo issue. For a successful treatment for mental illness to be developed we need more research. We also need to influence the societies to help each other if they see mental illnesses is affecting families and communities, with empathy. More often these are kept hidden because people don’t want to break their families apart; which often happen in the case of mental illnesses. This book gives you insight of a troubled mind and this troubled mind doesn’t come from any tragedy from the past , as often, it’s thought to be the reason. This book will also take you through the journey of narratives people believe and systems you never thought existed in USA.

We as Muslims are often told that Allah will fix our mental health, if we pray for it. Prayer and strength of eman will give you conviction to heal mentally too. But when you read this book you will understand that mental illness, how may ever it seems, simply needs treatment too. Medical science is there to help. It is not a sign of weakness to ask an outside institution for help, rather, it is a sign of caring and strength. Rather than wreak havoc on others lives, it is better to seek treatment and do good to oneself and one’s family.