Customer Reviews

A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World

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WHAT I APPRECIATE MOST about Susanne Antonetta's prose is the multiplicity of her voice. Here's a prose writer who appreciates more than one kind of music. Antonetta's work is aptly described as a mosaic hybrid, because of the ways she mingles the confessional, the mental, the lyric and also the scholarly and journalistic report. The music of this writer's literary intelligence is in the impact of montage, the shock of hybrid collision.

In Antonetta's A Mind Apart, bodies, minds and reports from the world collide. A Pacific Northwest community gathers to view a dead whale on the beach. A teenager kills a neighbor boy as a kind of science experiment. The husband of the narrator's cousin has a seeming-sorority of female characters living the mosaic of his multiple personalities, all of whom send her email. The intellectual pleasures of this work occur in the questions it asks about how a culture defines "normal" and what we might lose if genetic engineering succeeds in clarifying the borderline of acceptable human brain process.

The literary pleasures of this work alight out of the layering of many aspects and approaches, the content coming to the page through the voice of a poet, diarist, essayist and reporter who has told us from the start that her skin is too thin to enable her to stave off much of what she finds urgently stacked up in the world.

Antonetta is a writer to whose work I am particularly attuned, because of the ways her narrator is relatively unmasked, her structures metaphorical and lyrically innovative, her interests multiple and surprisingly connected, her aims to layer her own life with that of the larger questions of the world palpable and original. I can't think of many writers who hit all those notes.

I've long told students that my understanding of the "writer's voice" is as a kind of blueprint of the writer's body and mind, translated into language. For the lyric sensibility, the body with too few shields, the mind that experiences the atmosphere of life as stacked and layered and splintered and broken, while at the same time hears human existence as a mad and varied song, may have little choice but to write in such forms. This beautiful book is to my ear is an essential contribution to creative nonfiction form.

Barrie Jean Borich
author of My Lesbian Husband

Susanne Antonetta explores the lives and abilities of those who are considered by society to be different. The thought processes of those with multiple personality and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, autism, and various other neurological conditions can be mystifying to those on the outside, including family and friends. Suffering from manic depression for many years, Antonetta utilizes her own experiences to paint a detailed and often personal portrait of the beautiful contributions made by these individuals, and the potential consequences of eradicating such conditions.Advancements in technology are presenting man with many options that were at one time unthinkable. Today, with genetic manipulation and engineering the eradication of many of these disorders must be considered carefully. Diversity is necessary for society to thrive and continue to grow. Many creative, inventive and forward thinking individuals suffered from mental illness... Georgia O'Keefe, Van Gogh, Churchill, and their contributions to society are immeasurable. Had such genetic manipulation been available our society would never have known the beauty of some of the world's most sought after art.Antonetta makes a strong and impressive argument that although technological advancements may make it possible to rid ourselves of undesirable traits today, doing so could prove disastrous in the future. While an important and complex issue, the book often appears unorganized and confusing, making it a very difficult read, even for the most interested reader.

The concepts and thought provoking, controversial issues brought forth in this book may one day (soon) present themselves and force the public and society to face that which would have been considered purely science fiction a mere decade ago. However, such topics need to be thoroughly fleshed out, utilizing every available means. I found it very difficult to read, many important facets were left incomplete and this left me feeling more than bit unsatisfied, confused and let down. I would love to see these issues covered again - thoroughly. Worth a look, but make sure you have lots of patience, as this is not a fast read and check it out from library!

Happy Reading!

As a fellow bi-polar, it was easy to identify with Ms. Antonetta. As a book lover in general I was pleasantly propelled into the varied world of the "neurodiverse". I found myself drawn to the characters and the different ways they live life. I will definately check out the rest of her work.

I am 54 years old, and have thought about evolution and those of us with different ways of thinking for several years; I was amazed that others think about these things, much more deeply than I ever did. A joy to read.

Although the content of this book isn't quite what one would expect given the description on the dust jacket, it is nevertheless an interesting read. It is a book I would recommend to anyone looking for artistic inspiration and struggling with writer's block, based on the language it is written in and the numerous perspectives being offered on the human mind. While it gives the reader something to ponder, it is not by any means what would be considered in the realm of a medical text or an authority on neurology. The entire book is written in the context of the memoir of a middle aged woman observing the growth of her adopted son, in a search for the answers to existential questions no one can truly answer. Interesting tidbits of more scientific information are thrown in, ranging everywhere from the intelligence of whales and their sophisticated means of communication to theories on the workings of autistic minds and multiple personality disorder.

What's interesting is that in a book dedicated to neurodiversity, which in itself conveys the notion of humanity itself being an incredibly diverse species, the author approaches both her writing and her life as someone living with a mind she perceives to be abnormal and as a result her own self being damaged. She is bipolar and throughout the book addresses her fear that with the progresses of genetic engineering, people like her will gradually cease to exist, and so too will the creativity that drives our culture. If I could offer one suggestion to Susanne Antonetta, it would be that she try, if only for a brief period of time, to view herself and her own mind as being not so much apart from the rest of humanity, but as unique and as diverse as any other and as one treasured piece ingrained within the whole.

We're all weird. Just because we have the hubris to put our oddities to paper and offer them to the world doesn't make them worthy of attention.

Antonetta (a.k.a highly functioning university professor Paola) is a mediocre imitation of much more authentic writers--Anne Lamott, Kay Redfield Jamison.

I hate that memoirs have become dumping grounds for neuroses. Don't be fooled into thinking this book has any merits--there are much better ones out there.