Regina's Record

Rating:
Summary: The world is a hard place
Review: "Regina's Record" is an exceptional piece of literary non-fiction. Van Amber combines the story of his mother's mental illness and the horrifying treatment she suffers at the hands of the Veterans' Administration hospital staff with the autobiographical details of his own childhood and early adulthood. The writing is crisp and restrained during the most horrifying events, creating a sense of clarity in the reader. In other sections, the writing becomes lyrical, moving in its expression of love and pity and search for kindness. By the end, the reader believes both Van Amber's grandmother who says "The world is a hard place," and Van Amber, who finds miracles and kindness in that hardness. A beautiful book. A must read for students of counseling and psychology and psychiatry and nursing and medicine, for anyone whose profession requires them to see the human faces of the patient and the family members behind the label of the mental illness.

Rating:
Summary: A Harrowing Story
Review: The most affecting moments in this memoir take place when the mother and son share a scene. The opening scene, for example, shows, in great detail, how a five-year-old boy witnessed his mother being taken away to the mental hospital. Much later, as an 18-year-old about to join the Army, he visits her at a VA hospital north of Chicago, and she does not recognize him; furthermore, she says that she has no son. What would she make of this memoir-- the son, now in his fifties, reclaiming his mother, detailing her life of abuse and sad delusion? That is the powerful irony that lies embedded in every word of this memoir--how Regina never knew her son (and could not help him) and how the author only knew Regina long after she had died (and could do nothing to help her).

In one sense, it's a tough book to read. It does not spare the reader. It never censors itself. At the same time, it is beautifully written, a work of great literary craft, that can be appreciated by all who care about excellence in writing, not just by those who are interested in the subject of this book. It would make a terrific movie.

Rating:
Summary: The world is a hard place
Review: This is a book that should not be missed. As I read through the pages, I felt myself walking with Regina as the grip of the VA psychiatric hospital became tighter and tighter. The little boy (the author) has an amazing talent for not only condensing his mother's pain, but also his hopes, fears and his attempts to avoid his mother's fate.

It really is a thought provking book. The treatment of the mentally ill, children without parents and the brutality toward women left me with a new perspective.

I recommend it without qualification.

Rating:
Summary: A BRAVE LOOK IN A FAMILY CLOSET
Review: THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY BRAVE LOOK AT A LIFE, THAT IN SO MANY OTHER SIMILAR CASES HAVE BEEN PASSED OVER, AND EXAMINED FOR WHAT IT IS - A LIFE! REGINA'S RECORD IS SO SENSETIVELY WRITTEN, AND KEPT ME PINNED TO MY FAVORITE READING CHAIR. THANK YOU JAMES VAN AMBER!