Reviews for The International Cavaliers' Cricket Book

The average rating for The International Cavaliers' Cricket Book based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-25 00:00:00 Jin Kurtz I think at some stage in our lives, we take our physical and mental health for granted, some of us without even meaning to do so. I honestly feel like a person cannot truly understand mental illness unless they have been through it themselves. It is that simple. Yes, family and friends can empathise and give all the support they possibly can, but when it comes down to it, even after all of the medication, the therapy or the CBT, you are the only one that can turn it around. This is a true story of a successful, clever, young female adult (Lori Schiller) who was happily gliding through life, pretty much without a care in the world. Suddenly, without any prior warning, she begins to hear voices in her head that nobody other than herself can hear. These voices are negatively damaging, and want her to harm herself. This poses an immediate danger to knowing what voices are real, and what are not. Schiller slowly becomes more distant from her family and friends, just preferring her own company. Throughout this memoir which has other perspectives as well as Schiller's, she is hospitalized in three different hospitals over many years, due to the illness that we know as schizophrenia, and we learn just how she managed to get through the other side. I have the utmost respect for an individual that would openly talk about their mental health, especially in a book such as this. Mental health itself is still stigmatised, which to me, is completely ridiculous, when so many struggle, and try to cope alone. It took me four years after countess trips to the GP to be taken seriously about my mental health, and still now, I get shunned out of the door by consultants, who think a couple of painkillers will do the trick. It takes a lot for a person to get recognition in regards to a mental illness here in the UK, and sometimes, by the time they do, the damage has already been done. "Everything they did to me in the hospital was a form of control. Medicine helped contain me, but not my thoughts. Sodium Amytal helped mellow my behaviour, but did not tame my brain. Cold wet packs restrained my impulsive and explosive behaviours, but did not muffle all the clamor and upheaval going on inside." This book was well written, in depth, and powerful, and I want to recommend this to all, as I think the subject matter is incredibly important, but unfortunately, is so often swept under the carpet, due to ignorance and embarrassment. Schiller is most definitely an inspiration, so thank you for sharing your experience.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-07-10 00:00:00 Lynne Gaunt This book was (I imagine heavily) co-written, and as a result, it doesn't pack the emotional punch of books such as The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, Girl, Interrupted, or Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir. I was also annoyed by the way the book was framed as a story of personal “triumph” and “courage” (to quote the book's jacket copy). Obviously, Lori Schiller was extremely lucky to have to the emotional and financial support she needed to forge a life where, in her words, “it is I who am in control of my illness and not the other way around.” The fact that she was able to find a medication her brain responded to was another stroke of luck. It would be easy to draw the false conclusion that mentally ill people who haven't been as fortunate as Lori have therefore “failed," when the reality is that we as a society have failed them.