Hidden Valley Road: A Book Review
On my birthday I was gifted a book from a relative. The book is by Robert Koller, and it is about a large family in Colorado that had half of their children affected by schizophrenia.
I speedread the book.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Adam, you literally just wrote about the dangers of speedreading!” Yes, yes I did, so let me explain.
There are some books made to be speedread. These are books that are not so serious or groundbreaking. Books that won’t last the ages. Book-of-the-month type books. Books on subjects where you have no skin in the game. Books that you didn’t choose to read for a very specific reason.
And so, I speedread the book because of a few rules: 1) I have learned to read any book I am gifted immediately, because otherwise it will never be read. 2) In order to not waste time on the book, I speedread it, only slowing down when I am intrigued. 3) Usually there is at least one thing I can get out of the book, because there must be some reason why a publisher decided to publish it, and I have to find out why.
A final point on speedreading here, and then I will tell you what I thought about the book. You don’t have to speedread the entirety of a book, you can speed through some parts, even skip them, and slow down and close-read other parts. Simple right? For some reason some of us think if we are going to speedread a book we have to speedread everything.
I thought the book was mildly interesting. The most interesting bits were about the history of scientists trying to figure out what schizophrenia is. The efforts they have made to know more about it have been better than nothing, but unfortunately, not much progress has been made in solving how to deal with it. We definitely have a better understanding of how it works, what we can try to do to mitigate it, and where it comes from, but it is still unknown whether or not the affliction is a symptom of something, a disease itself, or a combination of stuff. No effective medication exists, partially because they couldn’t get a one-pill-a-day dosage for what they found to be the most effective. Oddly enough, nicotine is very helpful for schizophrenics, hence their smoking habits.
Most of the book discusses the family in a multi-biographical way, telling the story behind each person (all 12 of them to certain degrees). At first I thought the book could have been an article that just went over the medical history of schizophrenia, but when I finished and thought about it, I could appreciate the significance of the family. Not only were they instrumental in helping scientists learn more about the genetic drivers behind schizophrenia, but the family also humanized the disease.
In short, the disease completely destroyed the lives and potential of each boy who had it. It is probably one of the worst things to ever happen to a person, especially because it’s so hard to know what is going on with them, or how to help them, and there is no cure. You also have no clue if your child will have schizophrenia until they are grown up. As a parent myself, that is a terrifying thought. Nothing is so scary as something bad happening to your child, who you feel fully responsible for. The parents of those boys were heroes, in a way (and despite their own faults), and I respected them for the extreme emotional difficulties they had to face (as well as the siblings who suffered tremendously).
Do I recommend the book like Oprah? Sure, go ahead and read it if you like true family dramas and medical history. There was nothing bad about the book, the writing was good, the facts and information helped shape and form a solid image in your head of the family and the disease, the book was about the right length. Nothing wrong with it at all, but I think you have to be open to it in order to read it, and you can do that by speedreading it.
