A Gift of Stories - Book Review

"In a Gift of Stories Julie Leibrich offers stories written by those suffering from mental ailments. "She makes the point that stories have been around since the beginning of time. They are a gift. Stories are a way we can share our dreams, our fears and also a legacy of our humanity, a method to learn and grow from. Stories are our past and future; Stories, if not shared or understood are swallowed into oblivion.

"they died because words they had spoken
return always homeless to them. (Janet Frame).

"A personal story belongs to the person who lives it, to nobody else, unless that person makes a gift of it,".... "And these kinds of stories are an extraordinary gift, they can say the most significant things about life, even unlock the doors to life - but they take courage to tell."
A Gift of Stories

A Gift of Stories is exactly that a Gift of peoples lives that we are honoured to share.

"A Gift of Stories - Discovering how to deal with mental illness" challenges our traditional ideas and assumptions. Even its appearance, is a large step away from the usual government reports.

This is a beautiful unique book of personal stories from people who have at some point in their lives been diagnosed with a mental illness, which they have had to learn to deal with.

Julie Leibrich who inspired, listened, taped and very carefully produced this book of extraordinary stories. Has created something that hopefully will help along the path, for what it was inspired by and intended, which is to end discrimination and prejudice against mental illness.

Just the introduction lets your know you are in for a unique experience. Mental illness is not choosy "It affects people of all backgrounds, ages, abilities and experience." The stories told come from all these spectrums.

Suzie Crook is the first to tell her story and she sums it up when she says "It's a privilege, not a disability" This is not to say Suzies story is all laughter and brightness, but more one of extraordinary strength and resilience.

A Gift of Stories does not hide the truth, I believe the mental health system here in New Zealand and in many other parts of the world should bow there heads in shame for their past treatment of people with a mental illness. Most of the contributors have similar stories to Toby or Alasdair of their treatment. Many say that if they were admitted to hospital it was the worse time of their lives.

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic