The Center Cannot Hold

At age 8, Saks experienced night terrors, possibly the first sign of her schizophrenia. By adolescence she began to battle phantom voices, delusions, hallucinations, and a medical industry that tried to overmedicate and isolate her. Compassionate psychiatrists, friends, and her husband balance this picture, but above all stands the courageous and intelligent woman herself, who, despite all, got a degree from Yale Law School and became a professor at USC. Alma Cuervo imbues this memoir with nuanced tones that reflect the author's emotions: the fear that overtakes her when delusions set in, her the denial that she has a mental illness and her hope to be well, the loneliness and isolation she feels, and her strength to keep going. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine