The Overlife

<p>The author of this book Diana Dirkby is an Australian-born research</p><p>mathematician who lives with paranoid schizophrenia a severe brain</p><p>disorder as did her mother. The title The Overlife suggests that a</p><p>diagnosis of schizophrenia can be the beginning of a new worthwhile life</p><p>and not simply the death of the hopes and dreams that preceded the</p><p>diagnosis. This book gives a fictional account of a mother and daughter</p><p>living with paranoid schizophrenia. We follow the widely disparate effects of</p><p>this brain disorder on Sarah the narrator and her mother Jodie. We also</p><p>meet Dalaigh Jodie's husband and Sarah's father with his violent</p><p>resentment at being trapped in a marriage he doesn't want. By age eight</p><p>Sarah is Jodie's caregiver and must negotiate her mother's rapidly worsening</p><p>mental health and her father's white-hot fury. The weight of these adult</p><p>conflicts on the shoulders of one so young seems impossible to bear.</p>