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A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country
by Chris Lockhart
American Alt is a powerful memoir of crisis and redemption - a glimpse into the mind of an American conspiracy theorist, the schizophrenia, trauma, and misinformation that drove him to the brink, and the friendship that brought him back.
On the eve of January 6, 2021, Michael Dodd and his three friends found themselves in a stolen vehicle on the grounds of the Washington State Capitol, armed to the teeth, and ready to kidnap Governor Jay Inslee. Only there weren't actually three others in the car-Michael was alone. Months later, the violent plan thwarted, Michael sat in a psychiatric hospital and learned that he was struggling with undiagnosed schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. His knowledge of that fateful day was spotty, fractured by the different personality states he now knew were affecting his reality. Skeptical of a state mental health system, but anxious to find out how his world turned upside down, he reached out to a longtime friend, the author Chris Lockhart, for help.
American Alt is the odyssey of two friends trying to piece together the fragments of Michael's shattered memory and uncover the truth of what pushed him to the edge. Set against the beautiful but economically fractured Pacific Northwest where both men rambled in their youth, Lockhart delivers a suspenseful, profoundly moving story of discovery and affirmation.
"Extraordinary ... Most potently, the book is a moving portrait of rekindled camaraderie based on mutual empathy. It's an exceptional exploration of mental illness and friendship in the wreckage of American decline." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Michael] Dodd found the perfect chronicler of his story in his friend [Chris] Lockhart. American Alt indelibly explores Lockhart and Dodd's attempts to unravel the missing pieces in Dodd's brilliant but disordered mind, an often heart-rending journey with significant revelations for both men. This is an unforgettable and stirring read for our fractured times." ―Booklist
"Chris Lockhart's American Alt is a mesmerizing, compassionate, and deeply meaningful exploration of a perilous corridor of American life. By recounting the story of a friend whose mental illness brought him to the brink of conspiracy-fueled violence, Lockhart discovers hidden truths in his own story-and in the way many of us live now." ―Robert Kolker, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road
"A triumph of character and place, American Alt goes where few books dare: deep into the fractured psyche of the American west. It's a bold, unflinching study of individual, collective, and environmental trauma written with the page-turning lucidity of a thriller." ―Maxim Loskutoff, author of Old King and Come West and See
This information about American Alt was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chris Lockhart has a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from the University of California San Francisco and Berkeley and is the coauthor of Tupa Tjipombo's memoir, I Am Not Your Slave. He is the co-author with Daniel Mulilo Chama of Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murderand Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka, a New York Times notable book and NPR Best of the Year. He grew up in the South Puget Sound Region of Western Washington and continues to live part time there.
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