The Four of Us: The Story of a Family [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Swados (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 1991

The moving story of the author's talented family, which is haunted by the tragedy of the first child's schizophrenia. Four essays, one for each family member's story, combine to create a complex and resonant picture of the four sides of a family rectangle.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Described by avant-garde composer Swados as "reverberations put into words," these memoirs ring flat. Born in 1950, the author and her brilliant, schizophrenic older brother were raised by well-to-do parents in Buffalo, N.Y. In four parts, one devoted to each family member, she describes the progressive illness of her brother, Lincoln, a street performer in New York City's Lower East Side before his death from emphysema at 46, and his continuing importance to her. Revealing the unpredictable emotional states of both her creative, depressed mother, who committed suicide in the early '70s, and her domineering lawyer father, to whom this volume is dedicated, Swados details her own youth and schooling, her years at the experimental LaMama theater in Manhattan, and her travels. Although lifted occasionally by a pleasing phrase, Swados's account is heavy with reiterated material and a pompous, self-serving tone. While the sections concentrating on her brother and herself display some depth of understanding, those about her parents seem remote and superficial; in all, the author holds center stage.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Creative genius and madness come together in Swados's powerful memoir of her talented family haunted by tragedy. In four essays, she limns a schizophrenic older brother driven to destitution by his demons; an ambitious workaholic lawyer-father; a suicidal actress-mother; and herself, an artistic rebel. YAs will relate to this ruthlessly honest recollection that puts faces to the painful problems of the homeless and the dysfunctional family. Best of all, however, it gives a face to a survivor, the remarkable young woman who is now a successful stage composer and writer. An unforgettable, splendid affirmation of life.
- Betta Hedlund, Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (October 23, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374152195
• ISBN-13: 978-0374152192
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,359,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Swados family chronicle, October 15, 2000

By 

C. Denise Stuempfle - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Four of Us: The Story of a Family (Hardcover)

Swados, Elizabeth. The four of us. The story of a family. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c1991. (Book review)

In the history of disease is there any other that wreaks as much havoc on family life as does mental illness? Elizabeth Swados, a successful author and musician, shares her story of a family torn apart by dysfunction, culminating in dual suicide. The family's inability to cope with the symptoms of schizophrenia, "with severe paranoid tendencies" of Elizabeth's older and talented brother (Lincoln), serves as the cornerstone for this memoir. By devoting a separate chapter to each family member, Swados succeeds in conveying the effect of Lincoln's illness on individual family members and, ultimately, on the family as a whole. In attempting to come to terms with her mother's depression, which has rendered her "unreachable," Swados observes that "research in mental illness hadn't come up with an explanation of schizophrenia that might have lessened some of the blame on her." This criticism of psychiatry `s inability to relieve the feelings of frustration and helplessness experienced by family members, while harsh, is not uncommon.

While this memoir may be fraught with tragedy, the Swados family is, in many respects, representative of all families. Thus, the child, Elizabeth, remains blissfully unaware of her brother's "struggle with hospitalizations and medications" over an extended period of time. Her admission that "what I knew at the time was that my brother went to college and never returned" is a reminder of the extent to which families go to protect the innocence of youth. It also suggests that one of our major tasks as adults lies in reconstructing our family histories, based on our own memories and those of others.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars unique tale of a dysfunctional family, June 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Four of Us: The Story of a Family (Hardcover)

Swados devouts a section each to her mother, father and brother, and finally, herself. In a torrential-at-times rush of prose she describes a youth spent dealing with her mom's and schizophrenic brother's odd behavior - due to mental illness - which was never named, explained or treated with much compassion by her hyperactive, determined-to-succeed-at-all-costs father. Swados shows herself as a young child, imaginative, resourceful and creative, who managed, after a self-destrucive period, to develop into an imaginative, resourceful and creative adult. Her brother, Lincoln, especially comes alive for the reader, as a budding writer and cartoonist whose schizophrenia was never adequately treated (due in part to Lincoln's own obstinence) who later died. Swados' job from childhood on, she tells us, was to be the well child, the success her father could tell stories about to his friends. She well describes the toll that took on her. Yet there is much love and compassion, among the occasionally hurt and bitter memories. Recommended.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "Four Schizophrenics", September 2, 2009

By 

justsomeguy - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Four of Us: The Story of a Family (Hardcover)

This is why schizophrenic people should not be allowed to procreate.

This book is divided into 4 seperate and disctinct chapters, each focusing in on one of the family members: Son, mother, father, daughter/author.

All each chapter does is go on and on and on about how crazy the person is, and all the garbage they've done wrong in life. It's a case in point as to why people with mental illnesses should NOT have kids. It's insane. The whole family is so screwed up, it's unbelieveable.

It's not even entertaining, as it just goes on and on about how crazy the person is and how it's making everyone else in the family crazy who is already crazy. UGH.

Pass.