Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Dec 2012
224 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free rein to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years. The novel intricately weaves together three timelines: the story of Greyson's travels (Rome, Israel, Santiago, Thailand, Uganda); the progressive unraveling of his own father seen through Greyson's eyes as a child; and the intimacies and estrangements of his marriage. The entire narrative unfolds in the time it takes him to undergo twelve 30-second electroshock treatments in a New York psychiatric ward. This is a literary page-turner of the first order, and a brilliant inside look at mental illness.
"[T]his earnest novel about depression breaks no new ground in its depiction of the subject." - Publishers Weekly
"In her debut, screenwriter Garey delivers a commanding portrait... A vividly written chronicle of one man's attempt to conquer his mental illness." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Garey evokes in stark detail the torment and raw suffering of mental illness. A compelling read." - Library Journal
"Garey breathes life into an uncomfortable and often misunderstood subject and creates a riveting experience." - Kirkus Reviews
"This is an important novel, an eye-opener, and, at times, a white-knuckle horror show in its depiction of mental illness." - David Abrams, Fobbit
"Strap me down and give this novel to me in strong doses." - Quivering Pen
"A gripping tale of a man's unraveling." - Real Simple
"A racing, vertiginous read, harrowing and heart-breaking and humorous at once. Greyson Todd has a magnetic presence, from which it is extremely difficult to step away. Juliann Garey has written a brilliant novel, allowing us the privilege of travelling - hurtling, really - in the presences of Grey's troubled mind. By doing so, she makes his single, deeply moving story something even greater: a comment on family, and illness, and the complicated tracks that remain within our memory, waiting to be traveled down again." - Daniel Mason, author of The Piano Tuner
"As heartbreaking as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and as hilarious as A Confederacy of Dunces, I think Garey is a genius." - Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance and The Seven Year Bitch
"Juliann Garey writes with stark, lucid power about the tumbling journey into madness and the agonizing climb back out. Her electric prose trembles and her images vibrate at the edges, affording a rare and precious experience of the troubled mind from the inside out. It's essential writing - terrifying, exhilarating, absurd, achingly human and absolutely compelling." - Brian Yorkey, author of Next To Normal
This information about Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See 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.
Juliann Garey has sold original screenplays and television pilots to Sony Pictures, NBC, CBS, Columbia TriStar Television and Lifetime TV. As a journalist she has edited and written for publications including Marie Claire, Glamour, More, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and The Huffington Post. She has received fellowships in fiction writing at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and The Vermont Studio Center. Garey is a graduate of Yale University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Too Bright To Hear Too Loud To See is her first novel.
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