Detour : My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D [Paperback]

Lizzie Simon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2003

By all appearances, Lizzie Simon was perfect. She had an Ivy League education, lots of friends, a loving family, and a dazzling career as a theater producer by the age of twenty-three. But that wasn't enough: Lizzie still felt alone in the world, and largely misunderstood. Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager, she longed to meet others like herself; she wanted to hear the experiences of those who managed to move past their manic-depression and lead normal lives. So Lizzie hits the road, hoping to find "a herd of her own." Along the way she finds romance and madness, survivors and sufferers, and, somewhere between the lanes, herself. Part road trip, part love story, Detour is a fast-paced, enduring memoir that demystifies mental illness while it embraces the universally human struggle to become whole.

Editorial Reviews

Review

John Berendt author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Lizzie Simon's ingenious inquiry into the nature and treatment of manic depression -- her own as well as others' -- is a spellbinding revelation.

The Village Voice [U]tterly unselfconscious, funny, [and] harrowing.

Peter D. Kramer author of Listening to Prozac Detour does for bipolar disorder what Prozac Nation did for depression -- scopes it out from the viewpoint of someone who is young, hip, and vulnerable.

About the Author

Lizzie Simon, a graduate of Columbia University, was the creative producer of the Obie Award-winning Flea Theater in Manhattan. She recently was a consultant and field producer for the MTV special "True Life: I'm Bipolar," which was inspired by Detour. The recipient of a grant from the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, Lizzie is a frequent guest speaker and freelance writer. Visit her Web site at www.lizziesimon.com.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (June 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743446607
• ISBN-13: 978-0743446600
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #431,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A First in a New Genre about People with Mental Illness, October 14, 2003

By 

Alexis A. Zinkerman (West Hartford, CT United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Detour : My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D (Paperback)

Lizzie Simon experienced her first manic-depressive episode at age 17 in her senior year of high school while studying in Paris. It happened after she received early acceptance to Columbia University. Simon, now a 1998 graduate of Columbia University, quit her $900 a week job as creative producer of New York's Flea Theater at age 23, immediately after she helped them win the esteemed Obie Award. She had unresolved issues in her life, unexplored feelings left behind from the scary time in high school when her mind fell apart and was restored again with Lithium. She went away to college, sought and found success, and the subject of her daily battles with her life-saving pills never came up. She longed for closure. She searched for her sign, her way out.
"I kept receiving signs telling me I had other work to do. It was as if success had made a lot of noise in my head go away about being successful. I wasn't screeching at myself to make more and more. I wasn't basking in the public attention I was receiving or gloating through the streets of Tribecca. No, all of a sudden, it seemed things go really quiet in my head. I longed for a new direction, a new devotion. And then the signs emerged. The detour, my detour, lay ahead," she writes in Detour.
Then, she saw the sign. As she rode the subway back to her Brooklyn apartment, she saw a sign with a woman in a business suit. In big lettering over the woman it read, "For Mentally Illness, Treatment is Working". A few days later in the NYPress' "Best Of" section a commentary was written calling the ad "Best Scary Subway" ad of the year. The stigmatization and prejudice shown on behalf of the Press' editors moved her to write and send an editorial. From this editorial, spawned ideas for a new project aiming at de-stigmatizing mental illness and at the same time unite young sufferers.
"I am creating this project for the terrorized seventeen-year-old who has just been through hell and back. She's on the precipice of the rest of her life but she doesn't have the faith to know it, because all she can see, all anybody is showing her, is the dead end she feels surrounding her. I am making this journey for her, to help her through this, the hardest time in her life...I think she's worth my time, my energy, my art, and my honesty, because I think if she breaks through she'll change the world," she writes.
Detour began another part of her journey with this illness. She interviewed six other young successful people with bipolar disorder all between ages 16 and 30 chronicling their stories and asking them for advice on how they cope and deal with parents, coworkers, teachers, and friends. The story takes place in Simon's fathers's white SUV as she cruises from her parent's home in Rhode Island down the East Coast and out to California in search of her herd-her herd of other successful, high-functioning young people with mood disorders like herself. Along the way, she meets some odd characters, courageous souls, and battles terrifying existential woes, which almost cause her to abandon her quest and go home. She even adds some spice by including her love affair with a bipolar drug addict and fellow New Yorker throughout her book project.
Simon sketches with simplicity, portraying her six interviewees with honesty and sheer determination to survive and even thrive. Her empathetic interviews with other young bipolars as well as her witty insights into her own story make the book come alive. This book defines a beginning in a whole new genre of fiction and creative nonfiction about young people and mental illness. This is a must-have for every young person, their doctor, their friends, and their school counselors.
In 2002, Simon served as an assistant field producer for the MTV special "True Life: I'm Bipolar," which was inspired by Detour and HBO recently optioned for the rights to make the movie.
A recipient of a grant from the Federation for Families for Children's Mental Health, Simon is a frequent guest speaker and freelance writer. She also teaches creative writing classes and is working on a novel with a character who loses her brother to suicide. You can visit her web site at www.lizziesimon.com.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and inspiring, but it felt a bit abrupt, February 4, 2005

By 

J. A. Brown (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Detour : My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D (Paperback)

Lizzie Simon's life seemed perfect, with the exception of a genetic predisposition to being bipolar. She begins the book by detailing the day that she had a real "break" and the full impact of her illness seemed to kick in. Up until that point, nobody knew that she had bipolar disorder, though it ran in the family. It is pretty amazing how much she's accomplished in spite of her illness, and, at the age of 23, she was inspired to travel cross-country to interview other people living with bipolar disorder who were leading successful lives.
The inspiration came from an advertisement for integrated people with mental illnesses into the workplace, which definitely had a profound effect on Lizzie, because it dispelled the myth that there has to be a huge social stigma attached to having mental illness. However, when she read a "critique" in a local newspaper which discounted the ad and everyone living with any kind of mental illness (with a good dose of insensitivity and mean-spiritedness), it served as a catalyst for the road trip documented in the book. It's definitely inspiring to read how the author actually attempted to correct the negative effect of something that offended and upset her, which is something most of us do not have the courage to do.
Additionally, reading the personal stories of the young people who happen to be bipolar is moving, especially reading about how utterly depressed and sometimes even suicidal some of these kids were. That really demonstrates how powerful the genetic component of this illness is and it's truly sad how long it took many of them to be properly diagnosed.
I definitely think this was a admirable project and the author is obviously a great role model not just to others suffering from bipolar disorder, but also for anyone who feels strongly about a "cause" but has never been moved to action.
I guess the only problem I had with the book was that the writing style felt a bit abrupt at times and was really kind of short in length... It seemed like there was more to say.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read to understand what a bipolar person experiences, September 20, 2004

By 

Kristen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Detour : My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D (Paperback)

I liked this book because it helped me understand other people's bipolar manic and depressive situations. I manage this disorder myself and this book helped me see that others have similar experiences. Also, the medications mentioned in the book helped me to see that there are a variety of ways to medically manage the disorder. I gave my copy to my Mom which I hope she reads someday so she can better understand what I've been through when I was manic.