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Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood Hardcover – June 27, 2006

by
Adrienne Martini (Author)
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Adrienne Martini (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (June 27, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743272730
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743272735
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,875,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsPointed, down to earth, affecting
By J. Thilmany on August 27, 2006
Format: Hardcover
I'm a new mother who thankfully did not suffer from postpartum depression. I lapped up Martini's honesty at her birthing experience and at being a new mother. I felt the same way, underwhelmed, terrified of how dramatically my life had changed, and deeply angry at all the Internset sites, books, experts, friends etc. who let you know exaclty what you're doing wrong. Who are so preachy. It was so so heartening for me to read this that I praise Martini for her honesty.

The timeline of this book was kind of a tangle. I didn't follow many parts exactly..okay, wait, wait, has her baby been born yet? Is she still talking about when she was a college kid staying with her father, or are we back to the present. And the parts about the history of postpartum depressiong and how mental illness is treated in American felt very obligatory and tacked on, or patched in.

But the parts about her hospital stay, both for birth and for breakdown, were real and were wrenching. And I cannot overemphasize how freakin' refreshing it is to read a memoir, in this saturated environment, of someone NOT from New York, who doesn't live in New York and who seemingly has no connections in the New York-centered industry and who is resolutely middle class and didn't even go to an Ivy League College. And a memoir not written in workshoppy, sanguine style.

It's really good. I mean, maybe you have to be a woman and maybe you have to be a mother to appreciate this, not sure as I am both. But yeah.
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5.0 out of 5 starsFood for thought for all, mothers or not
By Emily E. Farmer on July 17, 2006
Format: Hardcover
Not only did I find Martini's book to be touching, thoughtful, incisive and funny, I found it instructive as a woman, as a daughter and as a member of a society that still has a long way to go in its ability to face and deal with mental illness in any of its forms. The personal narrative of the book is skillfully blended with observations on how mental health can be shaped by genetics and environment and how those around us respond to those changes. A fine read, and an important book.
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5.0 out of 5 starsMothers everywhere
By karrie on July 17, 2006
Format: Hardcover
will find themselves nodding in recognition as they read lines such as:

"I can be perfect and completely insane or good enough and sane enough."

Adrienne Martini weaves a tale of new motherhood,post-partum depression and family history in a way her readers will find comforting, disturbing, hilarious and heartbreaking. Martini spares little detail in writing about her brush with mental illness, yet she remains likeable and funny throughout the books' darkest passages.
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5.0 out of 5 starsInformative and profound
By Terri DuLong on July 24, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Although I've never experienced postpartum depression, I did have a mother who struggled her entire life with depression. This memoir deals very well with important topics.

I very much related to the mother/daughter aspects of the story. By not acknowledging her depression, my mother chose to not have treatment...something that affected our relationship until the day she died.

Martini is brutally honest in the sharing of her story and I commend her for that. But even more important was the fact that she managed to get through her dark time and move forward. Her memoir is about so much more than postpartum depression. It's about admitting to a problem, overcoming it, working through it and coming out the other side to become the person that she was meant to be. Highly recommended memoir!
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5.0 out of 5 starsGreat writing skill and a too true memoir about family secrets and forgetting
By Suzanne Amara VINE VOICE on August 2, 2007
Format: Hardcover
It is really amazing sometimes how families can deal with an issue like post-partum depression for generations and still not really talk about it or remember it. This is what happened with the author's family, and why her severe PPD, that landed her in a locked psychiatric ward, came as such a shock. Something similar happened in my family with pre-eclampsia (toxemia). Although it had affected many, many family members, and was most likely the cause of death for my greatgrandmother just after giving birth, I had no idea this was the case, and my own near death from it shocked me. Things that happen around childbirth seem to be easily forgotten, perhaps lest it seem like we are somehow blaming the baby.

Martini is a wonderful writer, even if she didn't have such a tale to tell. She manages to find surprising metaphors and striking observations even for situations that have been written about often. I would love to have her as a professor.

Just a note to perspective readers---the hillbilly part of the title misleads a little. The book is much more a memoir about PPD than about hillbilly life. But it's a great title!
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4.0 out of 5 starsHillbilly Gothic
By Murphy on November 6, 2011
Format: Hardcover
The author/narrator had an appealing voice and lured me into her story quickly. I honestly hadn't plan to read the entire book, but after her troubles, I needed to know how it turned out.

I think this book would help anyone suffering from post-partum depression or mental illness, in general. I found her descriptions of her experience on the ward insightful and true. She gives hope to those suffering from depression that there is help out there--but sometimes it takes a lot of effort.

My one complaint is that she jumped around so much in her story from time frame and relative to relative. It is not a linear story really.

Overall, a good book, but not an easy story.
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