The Dark Side Of Innocence: Growing Up Bipolar (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
I'm adding the tag "fiction" to this memoir, since Cheney starts off by saying she can't remember much from her childhood. I didn't trust the narrative. It felt like much was invented, like movies which are "based on a true story."Oddly, Cheney never looks at her parents in an analytical manner. Do either of her parents display traits of a person with bipolar tendencies? Her father's lofty ambitions and late night work binges, for example.Cheney mentions AA at the end and talks about her childhood sugar binges and insatiable sugar hunger, but never mentions blood sugar problems as a possible source of mood swings. Again, strange. Reading about Cheney's childhood was a wild ride at best. Her loving but doting father and her emotionally absent mother added to the confusion that Cheney already felt as an odd, undiagnosed girl. At times she could hyperfocus on her schoolwork so much that she wouldn't sleep for days, and got straight As throughout her schooling. At other times she could fly into an unpredictable rage and stab her brother with a table knife at the dinner table. Somehow Cheney (and those around her) got through her childhood with very little guidance or sense of security. Amazing, in a way.
What do You think about The Dark Side Of Innocence: Growing Up Bipolar (2000)?
amazing, another great memoire by terri cheney, i hope she writes more books
—iainb
An interesting view of Masada as seen though the eyes of 5 women.
—ishipkellic69
