Life Inside

Rating:
Summary: Path From Hellish Adolescence to Creative, Joyous Adulthood
Review: I'm a memoir junkie, and this is one of the most rewarding, carefully written memoirs I have ever read. Lewis insightfully describes each stage of her rich transition from searingly painful adolescence to self-actualized adulthood. I marvel at her narrative's double-voice: she accurately conveys both adolescent self-doubt and emotionally-attuned adult wisdom.
Readers who will particularly appreciate this book include lovers of well-wrought prose, and people who feel impaired by something in their past, and cautiously optimistic about their chances of getting over it and/or growing from it.

Rating:
Summary: Personal growth from hardship
Review: In this heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking account, Mindy Lewis describes her life journey, framed by her experiences as a teenage patient in a mental ward. Her story is honest and open. As a reader, I could identify with her pain and her experience, even though it is quite different from my own. Many of the feelings she describes are universal, which leads me to question society and its definition of insanity. Throughout her account, Mindy feels "different" and "individualistic", most likely as a result of her creativity and ability to visualize and approach life in a less constrained manner. As someone who does not have a similar life experience, I can still relate to those feelings.

The book is extremely well-written and vivid, with great attention to physical and emotional detail. The story moves quickly (over 30 years in 350 pages), with its main focus how the 27-months in the institution affected Mindy's life. However, the book also details Mindy's journey to understand her life, the world around her, her family, and how to create meaning from experience, going beyond "life inside".

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Personal growth from hardship
Review: In this heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking account, Mindy Lewis describes her life journey, framed by her experiences as a teenage patient in a mental ward. Her story is honest and open. As a reader, I could identify with her pain and her experience, even though it is quite different from my own. Many of the feelings she describes are universal, which leads me to question society and its definition of insanity. Throughout her account, Mindy feels "different" and "individualistic", most likely as a result of her creativity and ability to visualize and approach life in a less constrained manner. As someone who does not have a similar life experience, I can still relate to those feelings.

The book is extremely well-written and vivid, with great attention to physical and emotional detail. The story moves quickly (over 30 years in 350 pages), with its main focus how the 27-months in the institution affected Mindy's life. However, the book also details Mindy's journey to understand her life, the world around her, her family, and how to create meaning from experience, going beyond "life inside".

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: POIGNANT, TELLING, HEALING: FILLS A GAP
Review: In this insightful and beautifully-written memoir, Mindy Lewis lets us in on her innermost feelings and thoughts while an adolescent inpatient in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960's--and afterward. She candidly recounts her experiences regarding her family, her problems, and what life was like inside a ward at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. A panorama of patients is displayed in a crisp, no-nonsense style, with beautiful imagery and insights delicately woven throughout. The book is extremely well-constructed. Surely anyone under mental or emotional duress will find "Life Inside" enlightening--let alone encouraging and helpful. And for those somewhat more balanced, it offers much drama and insight too. Mindy Lewis opens her heart and mind as rarely shown and this book surely fills a gap in accounts of those who were "there" and back. All in all, this warm and poignant recollection is a testament to Mindy Lewis' unwavering search for meaning, truth and understanding, and her coming to terms; it is a bulwark of hope and perhaps redemption. Read it: you'll be touched for today and many tomorrows.

Rating:
Summary: a brilliant woman
Review: mindy lewis is absolutely amazing. i was particular hooked on the first part of the book (there are 2 parts) which tells of her 'life inside' mental hospitals. completely spine chilling and a definite must read.