Halfway House Book

The Voorsters are a typical American family. The patriarch, Pieter, is an immigrant from The Netherlands, but he found his home here while studying cello in college. Pieter never made it as a professional cello player, but he did manage to find true love with his professor's daughter Jordana, a beautiful woman fourteen years his junior. Together, they have two children. The youngest Luke is wandering, somewhat unsure of what he wants to do with his life. The oldest Angie is a talented Olympic-level swimmer seeking scholarships that might take her away from the one-horse New Hampshire town they live in.

In the middle of her senior year, Angie becomes manic, scattered, unable to complete coherent thoughts. The family accepts it as stress until Angie dives into the pool at a meet and refuses to get out. Clearly, there is something wrong.

Initially, diagnosed as schizophrenic, Angie is assigned to a work farm where she lives with other schizophrenic teenagers. But it soon becomes clear that she is not schizophrenic, just severely bipolar and possibly damaged by the medications she did not need. When she returns from the work farm, she sees that her own issues are not being being handled so well by the family. Her father has become reclusive, finding solace in ice skating and classical music. Her mother has found solace in a young photographer who clearly doesn't love her as much as she loves him. Her brother remains aloof but eventually quits school to be closer to her, causing unspeakable turmoil in several romantic relationships. Angie, rather than seek more help and create more problems, she decides to manage her illness herself. This tactic, obviously, will have disastrous results.

This is a fascinating novel. Simultaneously about mental illness and familial bonds, it is one of the best debuts I've read in a long time. It manages to take an issue as difficult as mental illness and keep from becoming melodramatic. Yes, some sequences are harrowing in their depictions of Angie's turmoil. But the author never stoops to making us feel sorry for her. Instead, it presents her as a human character with flaws, flaws as easily relatable to the sane as they are to anyone who has been there. Even better, the author manages in alternating points-of-view to give each of the characters a distinctly different voice. This is an achievement that few writers can master.

This novel is a stunning debut and highly recommended.