Customer Reviews

This Stranger My Son

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4 star:		(1)
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Deeply touching, this book took on a personal note, as I believe that it would all, mothers, fathers, and sibilings alike, that have dealt with the same one on one trials and tribulations of a family memeber diagnosed with Parinoid Schizophernia. From the simple moments that most take for granted, to the worst moments of fear and turmoil, this book moved me in ways that I can't even begin to describe.
Even Thirty-four years later, this mothers story is able to captivate one's heart.
Thankyou Louise Wilson, for helping me to better understand what it is that my own mother has gone through for all of these years, and for helping me through a traumatic time with my own handicapped son.
You are an angel from up above.

I read this book as a child of nine in an excerpted version in 'The Reader's Digest' and I have never forgotten the anguish Jane suffered when Tony wiped jam all over her party dress. I managed to get a second-hand copy [...], and it went even deeper this time. I am a mother of a child in England who has ADHD, and thirty years on, the same tags were hung on us as they put on Louise and Jack - bad parent, dysfunctional family etc. Nothing's changed, at all. Deborah Spungen had the same experiences as Louise with her poor daughter Nancy ten years later, and it took the 'experts' just as long to diagnose Nancy Spungen with paranoid schizophrenia. I greatly admire the parents of these two lost children. Does anyone know if anything ever helped Tony as the book ends in 1968? Louise and Deborah, Tony and Nancy, you are in my prayers.

I read this book while in junior high school. The story pops into my mind every now and then as it did today after finishing "Hurry Down Sunshine". This isn't a review, just a moment to say that This Stranger My Son moved me at a young age and obviously made quite an impression to stick with me all these years. I recommend it.

Our high school library was weeding out books and I came across this book. I instantly knew it was a book about mental illness, being a mother of a son with paranoid schizophrenia. I started to read it and I never put it down. It was painful to read because I knew the hurt and the hopelessness that Louise and her family felt. Her story provides a look into a family that learns to love, live and hope in spite of the heartache and pain they endure. It truely speaks for all of us on this journey. My son is homeless right now because we can not allow him to come home. He refuses medication and is an adult. Even after all this time, there are simply no easy answers for these problems and our federal and state govenments do not do enough. Louise this is a beautiful book, I felt your courage, your pain, your love and I could see Tony and I saw my son.

I ran across This Stranger, My Son: A mother's story, while packing up my high school library. It is an old title and the book was well worn and needed to be replaced. The title intrigued me and I took it home to read. I was propelled to my childhood by the heart-breaking stories of a little boy lost. You see, I was the sister of such a "monster." I watched as my parents struggled on a very modest income to get help for my brother. My brother, about the same age as Tony, was tormented at school. The safety of home is where he released all his pent-up rage. I hated him; called him a monster and worse. Thank you, Louise Wilson, for allowing me to see that my guilt was really my love for a brother who was ill not mean. My brother has had a fairly normal life because of the recognition of a chemical imbalance for which he takes medication. Please let your readers know how Tony has faired. Now, since this title is out of print, I'll just dust off this book, place a new cover on it and book talk it to my high school students. A sequel would be wonderful...we so care about you, Tony and all of your family.

Back when I read this, I was stunned. That year, my fifteenth, I was diagnosed with major depression-My onus, in common with a million others. I had fallen into a rut over the diagnosis, the possibility of an indeterminate medication regimen, etc. After reading this book, I realized a few things, felt a few alterations in my own attitude toward my new future as hinted by a doctor's prescriptions and diagnosis forms.

It hurt to read this book, but once I'd finished it the ideas swarming in me were many. I was reminded that, unlike Tony, I had the chance to make friends, find and accept love, and cope with trauma however minor. Later, I ammended this sentiment by deciding that Tony indeed has every chance I have. With the proper medicine and patience from those unfamiliar with his condition, Tony had and has every chance given anyone else to interact, make pacts, receive a phone call from a friend, and on and on.

What I at first found painful about the book: The similarity between the bookish and friendless state of Tony's schizophrenia and that of my depression (I refer to junior high and high school days as "The Monastic Years"). This heartache soon sublimated into a form of bleak hope. I realized years later, after my reassessment and new label of "bipolar", that both Tony and I are ill, and must adapt and grow as best we can within our respective cocoons. Thankfully, there is boundless help both in family and friends. I sincerely wish the best to Tony, wherever he is, and hope he has found the happiness once denied him by a simple chemical disruption.

Now all I have to say is, why is this out of print?

This book is exceptional. The reader feels the pain the family went through; the pain Tony went through. The reader can feel the love abound within this family. As I put the book down after finishing it, I broke into torrential tears... why... why does this happen to people? To children? My heart goes out to Tony. From what I learned through Tony's Mom, Tony is a wonderful human being! And his parents are truly amazing! After reading this book, you will forever view life in a different perspective....

I am struck, on re-reading this after years of working in with schizophrenics, how calm and unblinkingly she writes, how unbitterly. Mrs. Wilson (a pseudonym, I've read) wrote to give comfort to families in a time of deep silence about "the child who disappears" in an era of "iceberg mothers" being blamed for severe mental illness, but she did not know that one 10 year old would be reading it and forever fascinated with the mentally ill.

Few memoirs are so simple and frank, and it is clear she did not write to excuse herself or promote herself, but just to erase a little of the loneliness another mother or father might feel. She doesn't write for the New York Times bestseller list, she doesn't write to be glib or clever. Despite the book's age, if you are the parent of a severely mentally ill child, or the aunt or grandfather or next door neighbor, this book is still a very worthwhile read.

If any of "Tony's" relatives would care to weigh in with an update, pseudonyms intact, please know there are many of us who still remember this book as life-shaping.

Excellent book. Louise (the mother) writes in a restrained, understated, yet intelligent style that breaks one's heart. Those of us with children who suffer with mental illness will appreciate the details of this story -- we are usually presented with the broad strokes of a family's descent into madness (as we are in Raeburn's "Acquainted with the Night") but this book offers us the small observations that we share with other families in the same situation. The author makes us feel the frustrations of an intelligent woman forced to deal with uncomprehending psychiatrists, teachers, neighbours, and social assistance workers. When you are the parent of a young adult with a mental illness, you are powerless in the face of bureaucracy and Louise reminds us of how soul-destroying this vulnerability can be. As the other reviewers commented, I wish I knew what happened to Louise and her husband over the years, and to their son. I googled her name and the name of the book but was unable to find much.

This touching book is a mother's story about her life with her Schizophrenic son. A tragic and touching story.