![]() ![]() She describes in unflinching detail her three involuntary hospitalizations (even when she checked herself in, she was not allowed to leave of her own free will), her hallucinations (the first one a voice she heard in college as she showered), and the frightening realization that her grasp on reality is slipping when psychosis encroaches. ![]() ![]() Throughout the book, Wang confronts society's biases and stereotypes about schizophrenia while weaving research and reportage with her own personal experiences. The collection, which earned her the prestigious 2016 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, awarded biennially "for a nonfiction manuscript-in-progress by a writer not yet established in the genre" according to the imprint’s website, follows her 2016 debut novel "The Border of Paradise," which tells the story of a tragic family and mental illness. Throughout the 13 essays in The Collected Schizophrenias, Wang makes sense of living with schizoaffective disorder with clarity and grace. "Perhaps I was attempting to provide evidence of my side of the story, or trying to make sense of a situation that was confusing even to me." "The only tenable solution was to fold myself into a small, dark place: the closet." She hid in a closet with her laptop, messaging a friend about what was happening. The patterns of textiles in the room and the sight of her own face reflected in mirrors terrified her. Left alone in a hotel room, "a wild fear came over me," she writes. In The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang recalls a time she accompanied her husband on a business trip. ![]()
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