Insanity Factory (Paperback)

by Joshua Berlow (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A mostly true account of an involuntary mental hospitalization, demonstrating that the profit motive plays a defining role in psychiatric treatment. The narrator was hospitalized after claiming that there was a new incurable venereal disease, before anyone had heard of AIDS. After release from the mental hospital, the narrator has various adventures: life in an urban commune, telemarketing for a gargantuan publishing company, travel to New Mexico, working in a delicatessen, and studying physics. Insanity Factory is a modern coming-of-age novella that includes a recipe for brown rice burgers!

About the Author
Joshua Berlow was born in Washington DC in 1959

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Writers Club Press; 3rd,Revised edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595143229
• ISBN-13: 978-0595143221
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,881,688 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very interesting & highly recommendable!, August 1, 2003

By	"virgilhlts" (charm city, USA) - See all my reviews

this book takes on a subject matter of great importance. it is also wonderfully well-written and as entertaining as a book with such a serious topic can be. you will enjoy reading this book and entering (albeit temporarily) the insanity factory.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A book about seeking drugs and women, January 7, 2003

By	Richard J. Brzostek (New England, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Insanity Factory (Writers Club Press, 2001), by Joshua Berlow, is a fictionalized account of the author's life, which included his institutionalization in a mental hospital. The author recounts various adventures and troubles he experienced at work and chasing women.

The book is fairly entertaining, and I even found one part hilarious. However, the underlining themes of the book were his never-ending quests for pot, fornicating with women, and trouble holding a steady job. I was surprised at the ending because it left the reader hanging without resolution.

If one is interested in a personal account of someone that went through the mental health system and found it to be a detrimental experience, then Insanity Factory may be of interest. Yet, the book is not exclusively on this subject, and it recounts more various escapades with women and drugs than experiences in an asylum.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This!!, April 22, 2001

By	Howard Park "hpark43" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Berlow's memior (thinly disguised as fiction, yes the names have been changed) is far richer, deeper and interesting that most coming of age novels. Berlow vividly describes his experiences in to very different places: Washington, DC and Sante Fe, New Mexico. Much of the book is devoted to his bizarre confinefent to a profit hungery mental institution but this is onlt about half of this vivid memior. Take a chance! Read it!