Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood

by Tanya Frank Narrated by Tanya Frank

Overview

One night in 2009, Tanya Frank finds her nineteen-year-old son, Zach-gentle and full of promise-in the grip of what the psychiatrists would label a psychotic break. Suddenly and inexplicably, Tanya is thrown into a parallel universe: Zach's world, where the phones are bugged, his friends have joined the Mafia, and helicopters are spying on his family.



In the years following Zach's shifting psychiatric diagnoses, Tanya goes to war for her son, desperate to find the right answer, the right drug, the right doctor to bring him back to reality. Meanwhile, the boy she raised-the chatty, precocious dog-lover, the teenager who spent summers surfing with his big brother, the UCLA student-suffers the effects of multiple hospitalizations, powerful drugs that blunt his emotions, therapies that don't work, and torturous nights on the streets. Holding on to startling moments of hope and seeking solace in nature and community, Tanya learns how to abandon her fears for the future and accept the mysteries of her son's altered states.



With tenderness, lyricism, and generous candor, this compelling story conveys the power of a mother's love. Zig-Zag Boy is both a moving lamentation for things lost and a brave testament to the people we become in difficult circumstances.

Editorial Reviews

Shelf Awareness - Rebecca Foster

"A bracingly beautiful account of learning to live with uncertainty in turbulent times."

Mark Lukach

"Zig-Zag Boy is a wonder. I loved this book and the family at the heart of it. Tanya Frank masterfully tells her family’s story with as much grace, dignity, and compassion as she exhibited while living it. This is a beautiful book."

Philadelphia Tribune - Terri Schlichenmeyer

"A great book about the power of motherhood."

Mad in America - James Moore

"The book is a heartfelt and beautifully written account of dealing with mental distress and speaks movingly and honestly about the family’s struggles with broken healthcare systems in the US and the UK."

Beth Macy

"By turns an eloquent meditation on the power of nature and a terrifying exposé on the hellscape of parenting a mentally ill child into young adulthood…[Tanya] Frank hangs her intense, readable journey on…the healing power of nature and community.… This book will be a balm for relatives of people with mental illness.… Frank’s writing is fresh with keenly observed details."

Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books - Zibby Owens

"I felt [Tanya Frank’s story] in my bones.… [P]owerful.… [Frank’s] writing is measured and thoughtful and beautiful."

Irish Independent - Frieda Klotz

"From the Hollywood Hills to hospitalisations, Zig-Zag Boy shines a universal light on mental healthcare.… [E]legant, replete with meaning and metaphor."

Shelf Awareness

"A bracingly beautiful account of learning to live with uncertainty in turbulent times."

Times Literary Supplement - Julia Bueno

"Psychosis isn’t new territory for literature, but it features much less in memoirs than grief, depression and anxiety. Frank’s vivid account is therefore an important addition to the genre."

via Twitter - Bob Odenkirk

"[A] moving, beautifully written book about love and mental health and life. Recommended."

Emily Rapp Black

"Zig-Zag Boy takes us to the heart of loving and parenting a child in the most intensive and often heartbreaking way. Tanya Frank’s book is marked by wonderful storytelling, a wry sense of humor, and a determination to tell the truth no matter what. You will get lost in this story, and be better for it."

Booklist

"[Zig-Zag Boy] reverberates with a mother's fierce love for her son... Frank intimately depicts her family's heart-wrenching experience, rendering the unimaginable with grace."

Gina Frangello

"Tanya Frank’s Zig-Zag Boy starts by chronicling a mother’s nightmare as her promising son falls into psychosis but ends up being far more than the story of what happens when we fear for the life of someone we love. A searing indictment of the medical industrial complex across continents, Frank’s memoir also offers a battle cry for new ways of looking at mental health care and reveals the deep urgency of valuing oneself enough to dare to heal in a perpetually uncertain world."

Hippocampus - Leslie Lindsay

"Compassionate and moving.… Zig-Zag Boy delves into a story that isn’t just Frank’s or her son’s, but also many other sons and daughters, mothers and fathers.… Zig-Zag Boy is a collective book, giving voice to all families who have experienced this often terrifying and jarring experience."

Susan Straight

"In unforgettable imagery and nuanced prose, Tanya Frank gives us an incredible journey—from a parent’s worst fear to an opening in the world—through patient observance and love."

Kirkus Reviews

2022-12-14
A mother chronicles how her youngest son’s struggle with mental illness affected her understanding of what it meant to be a mother.

When Frank found her 19-year-old son Zach “tracing the wires of our defunct telephone circuit board” in their home because he believed they were under surveillance by “bad people,” she knew something was wrong. Until that moment, Zach had been a well-liked, highly intelligent teen who had never showed any predisposition to mental illness. The doctors who examined him eventually settled on a diagnosis of schizophrenia, while Frank scrambled to find her otherwise high-functioning son the help and medication he required. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the antipsychotics meant to control his condition made other parts of his life much harder. While Zach contended with the difficult side effects—e.g., blurry vision, muscle spasms, and decreased cognitive capability—Frank dealt with the “mental illness trauma” of witnessing her son’s decline. When he went off medication, the author supported his decision, not knowing that Zach was at the beginning of a stop-start drug cycle that, like homelessness and hospitalization, would continue through his adult life. Desperate to “fix my boy,” Frank did everything she possibly could to assist him, including moving back to their native England in hopes that his father and the British health care system could look after him better than the American system could. The author’s efforts only made her realize that sacrificing for Zach put her relationship with her beloved American wife at risk of rupture. Eventually, she found a measure of solace in a support group. “We agree that we are all mad, all disordered, all traumatized,” she writes, “and our loved ones are no different than anyone else.” As she explores the sometimes-painful limits of mothering, Frank candidly discusses the wisdom of letting go what cannot be healed or made whole in exchange for the gift of acceptance.

A heartfelt memoir about family, mental illness, and unconditional love.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178036129
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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