Into Solitary Places

In Into Solitary Places, Tom Steward writes from the heart. This tender memoir is a testament to a father's enduring love for his son. As a parent and as a professional, Steward recounts his son's experience with a debilitating mental illness. Steward writes of his son's formative years and how, in a matter of months during his son's sophomore year in college, a joyful, daring young man developed bouts of delusions and hallucinations most commonly associated with schizophrenia. Curiously, while Steward's background is in psychology, nothing would prepare him as he watched his son struggle over a three-year period. Yet in due time through timely treatment and loving care the most salient features of this young man's psychosis completely diminished. Not unlike Girl, Interrupted, readers witness the intimate progression of mental illness, but more than simply being a book about diseases of the mind, this biography's message is resounding and surprisingly universal. Steward builds a fortress for anyone under fire; for those readers looking to be inspired, here is a bastion of hope and courage.