...[an] extraordinary and courageous book ... No doubt if everyone were to read this book, the world would change. But its clumsy title (taken from a stunningly cruel offhand remark by one of Scott Walker’s staffers) is painfully correct ... it’s impossible to read his book without being overcome by empathy for his family, respect for his two beleaguered boys and, by the end, faith in the resilience of the human heart ... Like many families that have struggled with mental illness, the Powerses have seen way beyond their reasonable share of darkness, but they do eventually find a kind of hope and strength. This brave book — which reads like the act of consecration it is — imparts both, and demands society do the same for all who struggle.
...the author risks scaring away readers uncomfortable with darkness. But those who stay will learn not only what the stakes are but also why they are on this journey. The stay is worth it, for what unfolds is one of the most engrossing accounts of raising a family I have ever read, one in which Mr. Powers makes universal his themes of parental love, bewilderment and rage at the vagaries of biological fate.
This is no easy-stroll primer. Well-researched (complete with citations and footnotes), it is a deep dive into the horrors of how the mentally ill have been treated over the centuries, told with a decided point of view — one that rarely entertains the notion that others might see things differently ... One wonders, however, if in this era of harsh discourse, when many are growing weary of us-and-them arguments and pronouncements that allow for no middle ground, this level of tenacious condescension will help secure the allies he seeks in his somewhat encouraging final chapter.
[The] historical portions of the book don’t break new ground; good a writer as Powers is, they could be much shorter ... It doesn’t help that much of this material reflects Powers’ self-confessed tendency to be a 'sanctimonious bloviator,' There are too many snarky, sarcastic passages ... But through judicially interspersed chapters involving his beloved boys, one is brought back to why Powers is so passionate...The chapters on Kevin and Dean are heartbreaking.
...[a] heart-wrenching new book ... This family odyssey, one Powers travels with his wife, Honoree, could have stood alone as a book itself, taking its place in the genre of memoirs on mental illness. Instead, Powers draws on his journalistic talents to explore the past and present landscape of mental health treatment in America ... In the midst of this sweeping overview, Powers gives us powerful stories of real suffering and societal apathy toward the plight of our fellow citizens ... the book is, among other noble goals, Powers’s effort to preserve his sons’ humanity.
Ron Powers has earned his right to publish a book as angry and revelatory as No One Cares About Crazy People – he's paid the highest price a father can pay: his son Kevin hanged himself ... He has shaped his pain into a sustained howl of incandescent outrage, a book too heartbreaking to be comforting (despite its glimmers of die-hard optimism) and too uncompromising to be ignored ...If any book can begin to change those conditions, this is the one.
Having previously published notable books in the realms of biography, media criticism, small-town ethnography, investigative journalism, and memoir, the author once again demonstrates his versatility ... This hybrid narrative, enhanced by the author’s considerable skills as a literary stylist, succeeds on every level.
Readers will surely be moved by this double portrait of one family’s days of happiness and sorrow, and the world’s halting and flawed attempts to care for troubled people.
