New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 2001 unused book / old store stock; clean, tight and square, no tears or creases, text is clean and unmarked, pages are lightly yellowed

Synopsis

"My brother saw the face of God. You never recover from a trauma like that."So begins Angelhead, a taut, powerful memoir of the madness and crime that rips a family apart. "I didn't see God, of course, but I saw my brother seeing God; I saw how petrified he was, how convinced."Set in Tidewater, Virginia, in the 1980s and early 1990s, Angelhead documents the violent, drug-addled, schizophrenic descent of the author's brother, Michael. Commencing with Michael's first psychotic break at age 14 -- high on acid, seeing God in his suburban bedroom window -- through a series of petty crimes, bizarre disappearances, and suicide attempts to the shocking crime that landed him in the psychiatric wing of a maximum security prison, Angelhead enables us to witness firsthand, as never before, the fragmenting of a mind and a family."I knew, still know, that he saw, in some form, His or Her or Its face."Bottoms shows, in pitch-perfect prose and with great empathy and dramatic tension, the psychological decline of his brother as he becomes obsessed first with heavy metal music, martial arts, and the occult, and then with the more bizarre aspects of Christianity. We not only see the effects Michael's odd and increasingly violent behavior has on the people around him, but also come to understand how the author, now a successful writer and journalist, used the power of language and storytelling both to save himself and to forgive his brother. With the fast pace and seamless structure of the best crime writing and the moral sophistication and depth of our finest literature, Angelhead will challenge what we know about mental illness and its impact on us all. It is a brilliant work of unusual intensity."In his room he was having his first of many psychotic breaks. It came in the form of crippling guilt, ruthless introspection. He was Jesus being scolded by an angry Father. He wore sin, all sin, heavy as lead shackles. God made him look at himself and he was a stone with a minuscule heart."

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Details

Bookseller: Book Nook Monroe (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 312504
Title: Angelhead: A Memoir
Author: Bottoms, Greg
Format/Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Used - Near Fine
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: first printing
ISBN 10: 0609807145
ISBN 13: 9780609807149
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Place of Publication: New York, NY, USA
Date Published: 2001
Pages: 207
Size: 8vo - over 7 3/4 - 9 3/4" tall
Keywords: schizophrenics, family, memoir, brothers
Bookseller catalogs: Biography;

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Book Nook Monroe

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About Book Nook Monroe

We were a small independent new & used bookstore established in 1969 in historic downtown Monroe, Michigan. As of September 2021 we have closed the store to the the public and have transitioned to on-line selling only. We are diligently (most days) trying to add hundreds & hundreds of (so far ignored) books in two storage units along with the new books left in our inventory. This is gonna take awhile - stay tuned.

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Tight: Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.