A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story About Schizophrenia

　　「我是Robert

　　這是一個六零、七零年代，在加州柏克萊地區長大的小男孩的故事。他因為無法正確地識別現實，因此在餘生都被標上：偏執型精神分裂的人a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic」



　　當曾任BuzzFeed編輯的Sandra Allen收到那封厚重的信時，她一點都提不起勁翻閱內容。Allen知道那份文稿是什麼。在收到郵件之前，她已接到了一通電話，來自她許久未曾聯繫的舅舅Bob(Robert)，他寫了一個有關自己人生的故事，希望她能讀一讀。



　　Allen並不十分認識Bob。她模糊的印象裡Bob是個有些滑稽異想天開、喜愛音樂、也有趣的叔叔。會在電話答錄機裡留下長而憂鬱的音樂，又或是在角色扮演一般，聲音差距甚大的喃喃自語。當她還是孩子時，她的家族常會聚在一起度過假期，但Bob卻越來越少出現，他們說他「瘋了」。他年輕時曾於1960至1970年代住在精神病院中，後來在加州偏遠地區過著封閉的生活。



　　當Allen最終打開了Bob的郵件，她在這份充滿難以理解的句子和家族私事、全文用打字機，以大寫字母呈現的文稿中，發現Bob令人著迷的內心世界。這份乍看之下令人費解的稿件是Bob被貼上偏執型精深分裂症標籤的真實人生，他請求Allen將他的故事公諸於世。



　　深受吸引的Allen，花費了數年時間蒐集相關訪談與事證，並編輯、重寫了這份文稿，巧妙加以轉化成這部扣人心弦的作品。她忠實保留了Bob所分享的真實部分和寫作風格，穿插提到了他們的家族背景、她自己對於發生在Bob身上的故事的闡釋，以及那些環繞在精神分裂症和精神照護上至關重要的議題，呈現了一個與精神疾病奮戰的男人的人生，令人心碎但有時也引人發笑。Bob也許最終仍無法完全融入社會，但他在那之外找到了自己維持平靜、與內在混亂共處的方法。這部令人驚豔的新書，提供了一個獨特的視角，讓我們看見對大多數人來說無從想像的經歷。(文/博客來編譯)

Dazzlingly, daringly written, marrying the thoughtful originality of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts with the revelatory power of Neurotribes and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before.

Writer Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob was "crazy," that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than Sandy had been alive, and what little Sandy knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed Sandy his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences over sixty, single-spaced pages, the often-incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a "true story" about being "labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic," and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world.

In A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia, Sandy translates Bob's autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Lacing Bob's narrative with chapters providing greater contextualization, Sandy also shares background information about their family, the culturally explosive time and place of their uncle's formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable.

Called "an act of radical empathy" by Anne Fadiman and "a truly original piece of work" by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is a propulsive, stunning book that's poised to change conversation about schizophrenia and mental illness generally.

Sandy Allen is a writer, speaker, editor and teacher. Their essays and features stories have been published by BuzzFeed News, CNN Opinion, Bon Appétit’s Healthyish, and Pop-Up Magazine. Sandy was previously BuzzFeed News’s deputy features editor. They also founded and ran the online-only literary quarterly Wag’s Revue. Sandy’s work focuses on constructs of normalcy, including psychiatric disability and gender. Sandy is non-binary trans. Originally from Muir Beach, CA, they live in the Catskills. A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is their first book. For more, visit HelloSandyAllen.com.