The Memory Palace is a memoir which tells of Mira Bartok's life growing up and living with a mother who suffered from schizophrenia. The book begins at the end as Mira rediscovers her mother who is nearing the end of her life. It then proceeds to describe the process of their life in snapshots as rooms in Mira's 'memory palace.'
THE MEMORY PALACE,New York Times Bestseller, Washington Post Best Book of 2011 and 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography.- A blog about Author/Illustrator Mira Bartok. Dear Readers: I have been quite negligent in keeping up this website/blog, but will be launching a much better website sometime this year, I promise.
- The Memory Palace explores the connections between mother and daughter that cannot be broken no matter how much exists - or is lost - between them. It is an astonishing literary memoir about the complex meaning of love, truth, and the capacity for forgiveness within a family.
- The Memory Palace is a Memoir which opens with a homeless woman sitting on a window ledge contemplating jumping. An ambulance with its red lights flashing is waiting below. The woman believes that the red lights are the eyes of a leopard. It is a story which takes place in Cleveland, of an absent father and a mentally ill mother.
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Watch the book trailer HERE. -->The Memory Palace is a literary memoirabout the complex meaning of love, truth, and the capacity for forgivenessamong family—a family torn about by mental illness and loss. The Memory Palace explores the connections between mother and daughterthat cannot be broken no matter how much exists—or is lost—between them.
“TheMemory Palaceis almost a fairy tale: two little girls grow up under the spell of theirmother’s madness. But it really did happen, once upon a time, and Mira Bartokuses her considerable powers of recollection and compassion to understand herfamily and to present them to readers as complete, loved human beings. This isan extraordinary book.”–AudreyNiffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Mira Bartok’s harrowing and beautifultale of growing up with her paranoid schizophrenic mother is in some ways amemoir about memory itself. For Bartok—suffering from a brain injury and raisedby someone who had tenuous contact with the external world—the question “whatreally happened” takes on a particular urgency. She answers it with painstakinghonesty, weaving deft parallels between domestic and institutional abuse,individual and national trauma. And as she recalls the shattering experiencesof her childhood, literally illuminating them with her haunting mnemonicpaintings, something that was never intact is made resonantly whole again.”–Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
The Memory Palace Mira Bartok
“A book of aching beautyand compassion, that circles around the essence of what it is to be alive.”—Nick Flynn, author of AnotherBullshit Night in Suck City
“The story of MiraBartok’s tormented relationship with her mother initially recalls JeannetteWalls’s The Glass Castle inits riveting depiction of unconventional families. But in lyricallyelegant prose, Bartok’s THE MEMORY PALACE (Free Press) explores not justrelationships but the slippery nature of memory itself…a heartbreaking expressionof devotion to a mother she loved but had to abandon in order to survive.” –OMagazine
“Bartokjuggles a handful of profound themes: how to undertake a creative life…how weremember…how one says goodbye to a loved one in a manner that might redeem insome small way a life and a relationship blighted by psychosis; and, mostvividly and harrowingly, how our society and institutions throw mental illnessback in the hands of family members, who are frequently helpless to deal withthe magnitude of the terrifying problems it generates.On all counts, it’s an engrossingread.” –Elle Magazine
“This moving, compassionately candid memoir by artist andchildren’s book author Bartok describes a life dominated by her gifted butschizophrenic mother…Bartok turns these strangely parallel narratives andoverlapping wonders into a haunting, almost patchwork, narrative that lyricallychronicles a complex mother-daughter relationship.
“A disturbing, mesmerizing personal narrative about growing upwith a brilliant but schizophrenic mother...Richly textured, compassionate andheartbreaking.”
“Poignant, powerful, disturbing, andexceedingly well-written, this is an unforgettable memoir.”–Booklist, starred review
“It’s an arresting, compassionate, and unforgettable memoir.” –Bust MagazineThe Memory Palace Mira Bartok Pdf
“All you’d need is tosee my copy to know—I have Post-It notes marking phrases and sentences I wantedto repeat because they were so good. About one-third of the way through, Ithought that if this book were a person, I’d consider making out with it.” —LibraryJournal Book Smack!, starred review
The Memory Palace Mira Bartok Summary
“Mira Bartok’s MemoryPalace is a beautifully craftedtale of life with an absent father and a mentally ill mother. As the storyunfolds, you’ll see how fine the line is between gentle artistic creativity anddebilitating madness. With each new vignette, Mira reveals the wonder and thehorror of life in a house ruled by insanity. As the daughters get older, themother devolves, making her way from world-class musician to paranoid homelessschizophrenic. Despite that tragedy, Mira’s spirit never fails to shinethrough. You’ll wish you could pick her up, like a little lost kitten, but inthe end, she makes it on her own.” –John Elder Robison, author of Look Mein the Eye
“The Memory Palace is a stunning meditation on the tenacityof familial bonds, even in the face of extreme adversity, and an artist'sstruggle to claim her own creative life. Bartok carries us,room to luminous room, through her memory palace, filling it with stories thatlink loss to grace, guilt to love, the natural world's great beauty to thecreative act, and tragic beginnings to quietly triumphantclosings. This extraordinary book, with its beautiful illuminated images,will stay with me.”
“Amongthe plethora of books now available by the children of parents withschizophrenia, The Memory Palace stands out. Elegantly written, the book details what itis like to grow up with a mother with schizophrenia and sensitively assessesthe long-term effects her mother’s illness had on both her and her sister.Strongly recommended.” –E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., authorof The Insanity Offense