Hurry Down Sunshine: Book Review: Hurry Down Sunshine

Piekos, Magda

AP Psychology, Period 3

Mr. Thun

05/20/14

Book Review: Hurry Down Sunshine

Michael Greenberg gained his fame from writing his own memoir Hurry Down Sunshine, about his daughter Sally who begins to suffer from manic depression. Greenberg was born in 1952 and has only written two books, where the second one did not gain as much fame as Hurry Down Sunshine depicted an internal struggle with his own family. There is not much information on Michael Greenberg except for the fact that he continues his life in New York.

Hurry Down Sunshine attempts to recreate a father's battle with his daughter's case of manic depression. Michael Greenberg, the protagonist, seems to believe his daughter Sally is completely normal and becomes in denial of her illness even after his friend James Joyce had the same case with his own daughter Lucia. Greenberg's ex wife Robin also tries to convince Michael that Sally is nothing since Sally is a “highly spiritual girl” (Greenberg 48). Once Sally is escorted to her house by the police for acting inappropriately on the streets and she acts out violently scratching him, Greenberg is beginning to evaluate his daughter's state of mind. A doctor suggests that Sally be placed in a psych ward to improve her condition and Greenberg finally gives in because everything else has become hopeless. This illustrates the theme of accepting the truth as hard as it may be. It took a lot of willpower for Greenberg and his new wife Pat to have Sally admitted to the ward. Greenberg begins to question and blame himself for not noticing any “signs” that Sally had been acting differently than most girls her age.

The days grew longer at the ward and Greenberg was beginning to see how indifferent Sally's attitude had...

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...utter emotions. However, the book had few weaknesses such as it being very repetitive and Sally's actual state in the hospital did not seem very intriguing. I felt as though a lot of the book was about Michael Greenberg's problems as a whole and it did not totally focus on Sally's condition and her overall recovery process.

I would recommend this book to others since it was an emotionally drawing novel. It allows people to evaluate their own lives and actually cherish all the aspects of it because a “tragedy” like this can truly happen to anyone. This book is especially interesting once someone has had an introduction to psychology since they can understand Sally's condition in depth, however the book could be enjoyable to anyone. I would also recommend this book to others because of the fact that it is non fiction and to be more empathetic to people's struggles.