I hate to give this book 4 stars, because it is as 5-star as a nonfiction book can be in its tone, pacing, and style. Every chapter builds even as each avoids salacious details, revealing just enough to provoke the reader without being overly gory or gossipy.

The reason for my deduction of a single star is that although the author consistently revisits the topic of nature versus nurture, overtly chastising the mother-blaming narratives of early work on schizophrenia, he nevertheless places so much focus on the mother as to similarly make her the centerpiece, indeed, the source, of the issue(s). For example, the death of the family’s matriarch functions as a denouement of the text, with the author describing her labored breath reverberating through the house, via baby monitor, like its “bellows.” Likely, it is merely a circumstance of the writing of the book that the author was present around the time of the matriarch’s passing, but nevertheless, the pacing and significance the text places on this scene makes her death— and, by proxy, her life— central to the plot. Furthermore, though both parents were falconers, it is only to the mother that cruelty is ascribed— she is described as the one who sews shut the eyes of a bird, not her husband. This, plus the relatively scant narrative regarding the father (his mental illness being relegated plot-wise to retrospective revelations!), leaves the reader focused far more on the mother as the source of the children who were ill, at best, and of the illness itself, at worst— a conclusion that would seem to flaunt the very nature versus nurture focus of the text.

All in all, an exceedingly riveting read. It is not that I want Mimi redeemed, but the conceit of the text adhered to more. 4 recommended stars!