Stalking Irish Madness by Patrick Tracey: A Book Review

I recently had the opportunity to read an advance reading copy of Stalking Irish Madness, by Patrick Tracey, featured at Bantam Dell (www.bantamdell.com).

'Stalking Irish Madness - Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia' is the full title of the book. To my surprise I truly enjoyed this book. I probably would have looked past this book if browsing the shelves at a bookstore simply because I had no interest in the Irish culture. Now I will look twice!

I enjoyed the family's history as well as Ireland's history. I never knew of this plight in the Irish community, that they are/were so heavily riddled with the mental illness of Schizophrenia. Or even, that it is so prominent in the human race, period, one out of every 100 people according to Patrick Tracey.

I learned quite a bit about this disease. Unfortunately, I also learned that successful treatment is very limited if at all successful. Medicating the illness is what's done at best.

I felt the pain and anxiety that Tracey conveyed at finding his family falling prey to this horrible disease. Recounting episodes with older relatives of four generations who were stricken with the illness, and finally witnessing two of his own beloved sisters falling prey to the disease.

I admire him for going in search of answers, even as far as traveling overseas and seeking these allegedly fictitious places believed to be the origins of the madness. I thought it sweet how he even attempted to cure his sisters by bringing water back from the 'healing' well he'd heard his mother speak of when he was a youth.

This book painted a scenic mental image of Ireland and how beautiful the country must be. It recounted the history of Ireland's ruler ship under Britain, of losing their land and livelihood, and of the potato plight, which uprooted and destroyed many families forcing them to move or die.

Patrick Tracey travels across Emerald Isle in a renovated van, following clues and weeding out fact from fiction as he tracks down distant relatives and recounts local folklore and superstitions of ghosts and fairy mounds as he interviews the local Irish community. At one point Patrick sits in on a fascinating support group for Schizophrenics where reveal their secrets for coping with the voices that haunt them, in a way that keeps them functional and able to live in modern society.

"It is said that tonight, here at the stroke of midnight, our ancestral ghosts are let loose to roam the earth. I'm in this old Celtic fairy cave, since it's as close as I can ever hope to get to the psychic origins of the mysterious schizophrenic "voices" that afflict my family."

This was a very good read, in my opinion, especially if you're a lover of history and culture.