Finding Alice

By Melody Carlson

Book Overview

Sliding into the Rabbit Hole... Would She Ever Return? On the surface, Alice Laxton seems no different from any other college girl: bright, inquisitive, excited about the life ahead of her. But for years, a genetic time bomb has been ticking away. Because of Alice's near-genius intelligence, teachers and counselors have always made excuses for her "little idiosyncrasies." But during a stress-filled senior year at college, a new world of voices, visions, and unexplainable "knowledge" causes Alice to begin to lose her grip on reality. As Alice's schizophrenia progresses, she experiences a disturbing religious "awakening," believing that God and angels and demons are speaking to her. When others attempt to intervene, Alice is subjected to a wide range of "treatments" even more frightening and painful than her illness. Powerfully raw and brutally honest, Finding Alice is a story of individual suffering and hope, a family's shared ordeal, and a search for true mental and spiritual healing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578567734
• ISBN13: 9781578567737
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Waterbrook Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Awesome book

i completely loved this book. as usual melody carlson's writing captured me from the first page. the book is like a deeper and more wholesome "bell Jar" or "girl interupted". this is a book that is totally worth buying

finding myself as well

'finding alice' is a wonderful journey so wonderfully laid out by melody carlson. aboard this ship i felt a strong connection with alice and began to learn certain subtle meanings in life and what it brings daily. this is by far one of the best quests i have ever been brave enough to take through a novel. thank you, melody.

Deeply Moving

I sat down with this book at noon today and told myself I'd only read a chapter while I ate. Despite imminent deadlines and work stacked up forever, I finished the book at five-thirty. I don't even know what I ate for lunch.Alice tells her story with such immediacy and disarming transparency that I feel as if I walked with her through hospitals, under the bridge, in the home of the cat lady and on toward a not-so-fragile state of wellness.Besides the page-turning story, Carlson offers us an interesting comparison-- that of an abusive, dysfunctional, legalistic church contrasted against everyday Christians working out their faith by simply trying to live as Christ lived. As an aside: I'm an Alice in Wonderland enthusiast and I usually cringe at the way contemporary books draw on the classic. In 1932 G.K. Chesterton worried that the delightful story of Alice had fallen under the "heavy hands" of didactic scholars. "She has not only been caught and made to do lessons, but she has been forced to inflict lessons on others." I think both Charles Dodgson and Chesterton would have been pleased to see the way Carroll's Alice lent a framework to Carlson's Alice. Finding Alice is such a story of hope-- through the near-constant din of haranguing voices, we catch the wonder of that still small voice that changes lives.I highly recommend this book. It's a great story but it's so much more. I'm buying copies for our local library and our church library.

Wonderful book on mental illness

This book is about a young woman, Alice, who struggles with schizophrenia. At first, her mother's church tries exorcising the demons out. When that didn't work, she is dragged to a horrible mental hospital where she is doped up. She then escapes to the streets, until she is led to a kind woman (Faye) who takes her and her cat in. She then finds help at the Golden House through Faye's nephew, Simon.This book is very thoroughly researched, with different treatment approaches presented, from the tradition approach, used at Forest Hills, to a more progressive approach, used at the Golden House. Carlson talks about all the different symptoms and things people with schizophrenia deals with. I've visited some of the websites listed in the back of Carlson's book and have found that what she has in her book is in line with what is on the website.Carlson also talks about the view that some churches hold on mental illnesses. Some churches believe that mental illnesses are caused by sin problems. Unfortunately, that point of view is not helpful to the person with the mental illness and that is brought out in this book. I also liked how Carlson told the book from the first person perspective. This gave the reader an idea of what all Alice was going through, her feelings, fears, and how she perceived the world. All this gives an accurate description of what a schizophrenic goes through.And I wish we had more treatment places such as the Golden House for people who are mentally ill. Patients are treated with so much respect and dignity, as opposed to some of the traditional mental institutions where patients are treated more like animals than humans.

The book review of what I lived through!

It's almost as Alice lived my life of two psychosis. Yet? There are some differences. I cried through it, laughed through it, and got anxious as she often does through it. Do you want to KNOW what going through a mental disorder can do to you? READ THIS BOOK AND WALK THOUGH ALICE'S ORDEAL! In fact Alice had it WAY better than I did! She's only now a senior in college. I am fifty years old now and was 19 and 23 when my illnesses were full blown. Thank you Melody Carlson for letting me escape some of my terrible past and reaffirm the spiritual healing that God can bring to me besides my psychologist = (talk therapy)and psychiatrist = (medication check-up)!