Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

I think we need to start with the title of this book. The “Inside the Mind of an American Family” might be a bit misleading. When the author states “American Family” I feel like he is trying to represent a very general idea with what is, in fact, a very specific family. As if having 6 schizophrenic children somehow is an experience that is inexorably linked to being American. It is not. I also feel like any geographic indicator seems somewhat unfair. Like this is not representative of anything other than what it is. “Inside the Mind of a Family with Where 6/12 of the Children are Schizophrenic”.

My other big issue with this book is this. Once you know what the big secret is (which honestly you probably know before you even crack the cover) there is not a lot that is terribly compelling. There are a few times in the narrative where Mr Kolker creates some suspense by saying things like “that was the last time the family would do that before everything would change”. That worked. Also - there is a bit of a duel story going on between the family and the evolution of the treatment of schizophrenia and that worked as well.

Ultimately, however, it ended up falling a little bit flat. I hate to do it but I want to compare it to other science/medicine based not fiction a la Bad Blood. The difference being the narrative arc in that book is a lot more compact. Hidden Valley Road spans basically the entire lifetime of the matriarch of the family.

Overall a good book, but I’m not sure I would recommend it to someone unless they had a horse in that race.