From Publishers Weekly
Martini, a journalist and college professor, summons her blackest comedic chops to rehash her free-fall into postpartum depression—and the newfound understanding of her own upbringing that buoys her back up. Still mired in the oppressive Appalachia that chafed at her in childhood, she checks herself into the Knoxville psychiatric hospital shortly after giving birth, acquiescing to the "hillbilly Gothic patchwork" of suicides and manic-depression that scourge her family history. As her newborn daughter battles jaundice, her mother hovers intrusively as she awaits the mystical ability to breast-feed; Martini ponders her maternal fitness with a panicked despair nimbly rendered with dry humor and candid self-appraisal. Her misery, so jarringly at odds with the "bundle of joy" in her arms, throws open a window on her own mother's severe depression, helping Martini to make peace with her family and its legacies. Unflinching honesty, mordant wit and verbal flair (she comes apart "like a wet tissue" after giving birth) save this memoir from soggy self-pity. In its humor and empathy, it's a nonjudgmental resource for the thousands of mothers battling the "baby blues."
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Review
"Adrienne Martini's writing slices like a paper cut, sharp and quick. Her story reminds us that life stings, and that we, all of us, can heal."
-- Allison Glock, author of Beauty Before Comfort
"A smart, riveting, alternately sad and amusing account of postpartum depression and psychosis...A Girl, Interrupted for the new-mother set."
-- Cathi Hanauer, author of My Sister's Bones and The Bitch in the House
"Adrienne Martini has had a tough time as both a daughter and a mother, yet she brings back from the wretched edge of the maternal endeavor a book of liveliness and companionability, full of the wit and the will and even the anger that got her through the experience. This post-hillbilly madwoman knows how it is. She slips around your defenses and whispers her jokes and stories in your ear until you can't help but feel less isolated. I found her very good company."
-- Marion Winik, author of Above Us Only Sky and The Lunch-Box Chronicles
"With a rare mixture of honesty, humor, and compassion, Adrienne Martini reveals her painful family legacy of mental illness. Her own encounter with postpartum depression, which she explores fearlessly, is at once harrowing and hopeful. An inspiration to all who are touched by this most complex human condition."
-- Henry Emmons, MD, author of The Chemistry of Joy: A Three-Step Program for Overcoming Depression Through Western Science and Eastern Wisdom
"Hillbilly Gothic captures the fascinating contradictions of the women of modern Appalachia. Adrienne clearly illuminates the pain and shame suffered by those with closeted mental illness, while retaining respect for the several generations of brave mothers and daughters in her family who lived through it. This book is beautifully written, thought-provoking, and slyly funny. Highly recommended."
-- Katie Allison Granju, author of Attachment Parenting
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
