Description
Book SynopsisOut of the Crazywoods is the riveting and insightful story of Abenaki poet Cheryl Savageau’s late-life diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Without sensationalizing, she takes the reader inside the experience of a rapid-cycling variant of the disorder, providing a lens through which to understand it and a road map for navigating the illness. The structure of her story—impressionistic, fragmented—is an embodiment of the bipolar experience and a way of perceiving the world.
Out of the Crazywoodstakes the reader into the euphoria of mania as well as its ugly, agitated rage and into “the lying down of desire” that is depression. Savageau articulates the joy of being consort to a god and the terror of being chased by witchcraft, the sound of voices that are always chattering in your head, the smell of wet ashes that invades your home, the perception that people are moving in slow motion and death lurks at every turnpike, and the feeling of be
Trade Review"
Out of the Crazywoods is a hopeful book. Prior versions of yourself may shatter, but you are not shattered."—Bruce Owens Grimm,
Brevity"Styled as a series of vignettes, the episodic structure of
Out of the Crazywoods creates an enthralling narrative."—Haydee Marie Smith,
Disability Studies Quarterly“With lyrical language and powerful episodic storytelling Cheryl Savageau brings luminous clarity to her experience of navigating the Crazywoods. She draws us into an inner world, both mythic and mystifying, of
being bipolar, which at times reflects the dynamic intricacy of New England’s recovering forestland but also illuminates the ongoing activity and struggle of
alnôbawôgan, being and becoming human.”—Lisa Brooks, author of
The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast“Cheryl Savageau’s memoir
Out of the Crazywoods maps the experience of ‘bipolar’ again and again—defining and redefining, remembering and remaking, etching and resketching the shape, substance, sensation, and sentiment of her experience of ‘being’ bipolar and coming to that diagnosis and recognition. . . . Savageau’s luminous prose ripples, soars, and shines with grounded honesty, some biting humor, and richly textured sensory detail (some quite synesthetic). This is a compelling work of complex embodiment, complicated relations (with self and other), and careful narrative. It demonstrates how one writes identity and, too, how identity can be (well) written.”—Brenda Jo Brueggemann, editor of
Disability Studies Quarterly“Abenaki poet and memoirist Cheryl Savageau’s stunning collection of braided vignettes leads us through the chaos many of us know, toward tenuous, hard-won places of compassion, joy, and possibility. Savageau writes, ‘I live on that edge between what is true, what is sacred and magical, and where madness begins.’ Yes, this memoir is disturbing, disruptive—and, reading it, we are stronger, heartened for this journey between spaces of identity, the cusps and edges of brilliance, becoming human.”—Deborah A. Miranda, author of
Bad Indians: A Tribal MemoirTable of ContentsAbout This Book
Bagw and Tekw
Under the Crib
The Pivot Point
Learning to Speak
What It Is
Age Three—The Witch in the Bag
Angels
Diagnosis
Dirt
She’s Not Heavy, She’s My Sister
The Tarot
Tiger Butter
LOOK
Age Seven—The Body Book
Poppies
At the Welfare Office
Exuberance
Shopping
Crazy Lady in Grad School
In Fourth Grade
What’s Happening?
Jungle Road
Blackouts
Voices
The Bad Mother
Exceptional Children
The Twirling Skirt
Crazy Talk I
The Death Turnpike
Life in the Fast Lane: Am I Paranoid, or Are They Really Out to Get Me?
Meds
Arthur Lloyd
shades
The Bra Thing
I Am in Love with Rita Moreno
Crazy Talk II
Beautiful Doll
The Ugly Year
Krishna, My Love
Poetry for Breakfast
Cribbage
Teaching Castaneda
Losing Them
Meditation—The Barren Road
The Taster
Horse Dream I
Wretched
Baby
Sunday Afternoon with Betty Grable
Islands of Sanity: Poetry
My Bookstore
The New House at Center Harbor
When You Can’t Keep a Job
Denied
Islands of Sanity: Grandsonso
Crazy Talk III
Getting Fat on Antidepressants
To Whom It May Concern:
Memere Stories: Sing á Memere
Sunday Dinners
Pookie
Peach Cobbler
Falling in Love with Diane
Talk Doc: Julie
Grand Poobah
Land of Enchantment I
Stories and Storms
New York in Albuquerque
Leaving
The Witch at the Wake
Land of Enchantment II
China Doll
My Special One
After Dropping Acid on a School Night
Yeats
You Bet Your Life
Crazy Talk: Lonely
Eating Worms I
My Mother’s Side
Ceremony
Falling into Grace
A Paycheck Away
Seven Mice
Christmas with Tarot Cards
Geraniums
Citizens for Citizens
Wet Ashes
The Eighth Mouse
Good morning:
Memere Stories: Paint
Not Connect: Abilify Mania
Piano
Memere Stories: Talking
Talk Doc: Karen
Listenings
Giving Myself to Beauty
The Green Quilt
Memere Stories: Howling
Eating Worms II
Greeley Park, Nashua—The Tree
Maura’s Bag
Talk Doc: The Real Work
Relearning the Habits of Childhood
Crying for Real
Horse Dream II
Math Games
Meditation—Fern
Ambien: The Butterfly, Lock, and Key
SAD
Nearly Normal
Memere Stories: Baseball
Stigma
What It Is For
Happy
Alnôbawôgan
Acknowledgments
Source Acknowledgments
