My Review: LEAVING THE HALL LIGHT ON

 Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide charts the near destruction of one middle-class family whose son committed suicide after a seven-year struggle with Bipolar Disorder. Madeline Sharples is an author, poet and web journalist who goes deeply into her own well of grief to describe her anger, frustration and guilt. She describes many attempts - some successful, some not - to have her son committed to a hospital and to keep him on his medication. The book charts her and her family's redemption; how she considered suicide herself and ultimately, her decision to live and take care of herself as a woman, wife, mother and writer.
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Contact Madeline Sharples on her blog, Choices, located Here.



MY REVIEW
The review that I wrote and posted on Amazon was titled, 'A fly on her wall.' Perhaps this may seem to some an odd title. As I was reading the memoir, however, it felt as if Madeline had opened to me, as an observer, a door into the actual experiences had by her family and herself. As an avid reader, those stories that pull me deeply into the experiences portrayed are books that I consider to be worthy of '5-stars.' When a story involves tragedy, an author's ability to invoke in me deep levels of compassion, empathy and even commiseration are key. Chapter One, How It All Began, pulled me in deeply, catapulting my emotions straight into the tragic incident of Paul's suicide then immediately lightening my overload of emotions with scenes of the earlier years of  this fun, loving family. Madeline delivers these scenes as a gift to her readers and gave to me the glimmer of hope that can portend healing and recovery.
If I had not previously worked in the field of mental health, my understanding of a person with Bi-polar Disorder would have been made complete due to Madeline's descriptions that so vividly depicted the emotional roller-coaster ride of this illness, a sometimes insurmountable one. Most compelling for me was Madeline's gut-level delivery of her own emotional roller-coaster ride through grief. She openly shares with her readers the raw thoughts and emotions felt as she and her husband attempted to get her son, Paul, to seek the help he needed and to take the medications that could help him stay more in balance; and, when their attempts failed time after time, to deal with a deep sense of helpless anger, hopeless guilt.
Madeline's journey through grief was a long one yet one that had plateaus of fresh air along her way. Her story portrays a growing sense of hope as each phase brought her towards a place of recognition that the thoughts and emotions within grief are not static; that, above all, grief is 'love in action.' Leaving the Hall Light On is a real-life story that depicts a journey that I would not wish to take yet, it is one that I feel privileged to have been allowed to follow as, 'a fly on the wall.'

ABOUT MADELINE
Madeline Sharples studied journalism in high school and college, and wrote for the high school newspaper. She only started to fulfill her dream of working as a creative writer and journalist later in life. Her memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, was released in a hardback edition in 2011 and has just been released in paperback and ebook editions by Dream of Things. It tells the steps that Madeline took in living with the loss of her oldest son; first and foremost that she chose to live and take care of herself as a woman, wife, mother and writer. She hopes that her story will inspire others to find ways to survive their own tragic experiences.
Madeline also co-authored, Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take On Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press, 1994). She co-edited the poetry anthology, The Great American Poetry Show, Volumes 1 and 2; and wrote the poems for two photography books, The Emerging Goddess, and, Intimacy (Paul Blieden, photographer). Madeline's poems have also appeared online and in print magazines.
Madeline's articles appear regularly in Naturally Savvy, PsychAlive, Aging Bodies, and Open to Hope. She posts at her blogs, Choices, and at Red Room. Currently, she is writing a novel.
Madeline's mission since the death of her son is to raise awareness, educate and erase the stigma of mental illness and suicide in the hopes of saving lives.

Madeline and her husband of forty years lives in Manhatten Beach, California, a small beach community south of Los Angeles. Her younger son, Ben, lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife, Marissa.