Perhaps no disease is as devastating as schizophrenia. This condition is particularly destructive because it leads typical adolescents to become young adults who experience delusions, hear voices, and behave in bizarre ways. These changes are particularly shattering to parents, who not only must witness their beloved children disappearing into incomprehensible and inaccessible states but also must serve as the primary caregivers for their disturbed children. At the same time, they struggle with the fundamental dilemma of who will take over their caretaking responsibilities after they die.
Journalist Ron Powers's book about his two sons' descent into the singular world of madness, and for one, suicide, provides a sensitive, nuanced, and powerful account of the havoc that schizophrenia creates for ill persons and their families alike. Powers recounts the story of how his talented sons Kevin and Dean changed from normal teenagers growing up in Middlebury, Vermont, to college students who...
