Monday, February 10, 2014

Book Review: My Lobotomy

As an author I'm practically obligated to read books. Not only does reading books influence me as a writer, especially where the literary works of prolific authors are concerned, but it also helps me to expand my knowledge base so that I may write with more authority.

Probably the most limiting factor, however, in my voracity for reading is that I am by nature very particular about the books I read. I'm easily bored, and so critical of language that it's oftentimes difficult for me to find a book, by any author, that I enjoy to the point that I feel compelled to finish reading it, word for word. Therefore, there are relatively few books for which I am willing to give my recommendation.

My Lobotomy is one of those books.

Written by Howard Dully in collaboration with Charles Fleming, and published by Three Rivers Press in New York, My Lobotomy is the personal memoir of a man who, as a child, was lobotomized by the famed Dr. Walter Freeman, who popularized the "ice pick" lobotomy at the middle of the 20th century.

Written from the perspective, and in the "down-home" voice, of Mr. Dully, My Lobotomy is, on the one hand, easy to read; and on the other, intensely compelling. Over the course of three days I could hardly put it down; always the hallmark of a good book.

The book itself follows the life story of Howard Dully; from the tragic death of his mother during his childhood, through the precarious circumstances of his early life growing up in a small California town, to his adulthood, disadvantaged by the events following the operation that inevitably steered the course of his destiny.

Recounting his institutionalization at the historic Agnews Insane Asylum, his stay at a now defunct California "Developmental Center," and his time as a homeless man on the streets, Mr. Dully's story is fascinating to read. Predicated on the unfortunate turn of events in his home life, particularly as concerns his apparently abusive step-mother, Mr. Dully's story is less a cautionary tale than it is a narrative of the kind of social injustice that can only be born of an uninformed and misguided society; the likes of which has only come to pass before us in recent generations.

From the perspective of an historian, the book's passages which concern Mr. Dully's free access to the clinical documentation of his lobotomy were especially of interest to me. The casual language with which Dr. Freeman documents Mr. Dully's circumstances and operation might shock the average reader; but as someone who is familiar with clinical literature, to me it served as a stark reminder of the cold calculation typically attributable to figureheads of the mental health profession in the previous century.

Moreover, My Lobotomy is a story of inspiration; of overcoming adversity and prevailing in the face of a tragedy unavoidable by the forces imposed upon the vulnerable. Particularly in the final chapter and the Afterward does the reader achieve a sense of triumph in its conclusion. And so here does the book tug hardest at the heart-strings, invoking a sense of enlightenment even in the face of darkness.

From childhood, to adolescence and adulthood Howard Dully's life's story, as it is documented in My Lobotomy, was a pleasure to read. From the trouble of his early life to his position as an ostensibly celebrated figure in Dr. Freeman's dubious legacy, Mr. Dully's account should be heralded for generations to come as an indispensible part of this history, and ought to be a distinguished inclusion to anyone's book shelf.

My Lobotomy is available at bookstores nationwide as well as on Amazon.

1 comment:

  1. The No-Way-Back Society will make grasp on how the environment has molded us into the individuals we have become, without us noticing it. Is this really us or what the society has asked us to become – because we have to!

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