A Great Place for a Seizure

by Terry Tracy

Mischa Dunn's family flees Chile in the wake of the 1973 coup d'etat that installs a military dictatorship. She settles comfortably in her newly adopted country, the United States, until one day, an unexplained seizure in a library signals the beginning of her life with epilepsy. With an engaging balance of humor, insight, and sensitivity Mischa draws the reader into a vivid tale that travels across three continents over thirty years.

Genres: Fiction, Disability, Novels

290 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2011

About the author

Terry Tracy, has worked as a human rights activist, journalist, and U.S. diplomat. Terry has had epilepsy for over twenty-five years and in 2007 she wrote the charter for an association of disabled employees at the U.S. State Department.

Terry Tracy was born in Virginia, but moved around Latin America in her childhood as an army brat. After college Terry worked as a receptionist, then left to work for free in Honduras at an orphanage. She returned to work in a human rights organization in Washington DC, then left for Guatemala to work as a free-lance journalist. By this point, an addiction to wanderlust was clear. In denial, she crossed the Atlantic to Cambridge, England where she earned a Master's degree by studying an impractical, but nevertheless intriguing, subject--16th century Spanish colonial judicial systems. When she returned to the US she joined the establishment and worked for the government. In 2007 she left the State Department to take turns as a stay-at-home parent. Terry is Asian-Irish American and currently resides in London with her German husband and their Asian-Irish-German-American daughter.

Reviews

[Mayara Arend · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the first book I ever read that has this special meaning to me. I feel honoured to be reviewing it and delighted by the internet for making it able to me to be found by Terry Tracy, author of "A Great Place for a Seizure".

And why is this so important to me, you ask? Because I have epilepsy. Not many people know, I don't really make it a secret, but's not important. I found out I had it when I was 12 going on 13, when I had my two first seizures in a month's time. After that, I had several ENFURIATING doctors who'd tell me "you're epiletic, you'll never be able to do anything on your own, you can't sleep alone or walk the streets without someone with you. You'll take medicines for the rest of your life and that's what's going to happen" and all that WITHOUT one.single.exam. I had a major temper already, so you can guess what happened.

I have a minor, very light form of the disease, I get seizures when I'm off my meds and deeply stressed, so sleeping 2 - 3 hours a night, for two days in a row, for example, triggers it, but only when someone wakes me up. After I started taking my medicine, I didn't get any more seizures. My doctor tried to take me off my meds, I had one seizure and went back. It's been 8 years and we're trying to cut off my meds again, technically I take a baby's dosage, but it can damage my liver, my ability to have babies and makes me sleepy (like I'm not sleepy enough without it) so we're trying. And I'm just trying to avoid stress because of that.

I only had a seizure in front of my family and my boyfriend, but that was enough. When people hear I take (or used to take) a "permanent" medicine or that I had seizures, they would stare. And that stare was full of fear or pity. When I had my "last" seizure my boyfriend was with me, but he had no idea, I was off my meds for 6 months and I never told him... He tried to hold my tongue (who started that freaking rumour anyway?) and I bit his finger. He still has the scar. He's freaked off that I'm off my meds, he keeps staring and expecting me to seizure (we've been together for 9 years, yes). It's frustrating.

I take the book I'm reading with me everywhere. And the reactions of other people to this particular one were very interesting: some people would ask me what a "seizure" is (not everyone is fluent here, most people only speak portuguese) and then stare at me, like "that's no reading matterial", this one girl who's fluent, stared at the book, read the back cover and said "how awful, poor girl". I keep wanting to say "poor girl, poor girl but that could be me! I was lucky to have a light version, but that IS me!". And, besides, how is that not good reading matterial? Is torture, world war I, II or whatever good reading matterial? And then why Anne Frank is a classic but a beautiful and wonderful book about Epilepsy isn't?


So, in a much smaller scale, I understand Mischa (the main character). Mischa feels it much stronger, because she does have the case where meds don't really work and she gets seizures every now and then. I don't, I never felt the look of strangers after a seizure - except for one of my neighbours who my mom yelled to come when I had a seizure once, I never had to deal with leaving the house and having a seizure wherever I am, that was never a concern. But it scares a person either way.

Enough of me - to the book. Mischa finds out she has epilepsy when she's 14. She lives her life normally, or at least as much as she can, that way, she's the daughter of a Chilean aristocrat and an american professor of Russian literature, living in Chile for her childhood and moving to the US when she is almost a teen.

She lives her life through the seizures, counting them each time she moves through a step of her life, like high school, college, first job, etc. I love Mischa's temper, her witty jokes, her way of saying she HAS epilepsy but she ISN`T epiletic, because it is something she has, not who she is. It's a condition, a disease, and she insists she is not disabled, she is not handicapped, she can live and work and do her own stuff her way, because she's just a normal girl who happens to have seizures.

Terry's style is cute and funny, while sarcastic. Like Mischa says "I'm being sarcastic/ironic, so it means my brain is coming back" after a seizure, Terry keeps us laughing, smiling and letting some "aww" and "oh"s escape every now and then. I love the way she portraits seizures, the aura, everything - I never had an aura, since I'm always asleep when I have a seizure, and those seemed like, well, the only good part of it, so that's pretty sad, in a way.


Mischa's friend Sophie is amazing, aswell. She is the perfect sidekick and shows that not everyone is suited to be a friend of someone with a "condition" because people get touchy, people get angry, it's hard to tell them some things and Sophie can do it, Mischa listens to Sophie because they know and trust eachother. And I can't get enough of Hector. He's cute, adorable and oh so british.


This book should be translated to every single language in the world and given in schools, distributed in clinics, handed around, so that people could understand things. Understand conditions and disabilities, see how it's life with a condition instead of seeing people on TV who can't get up in the morning because of their issues, illnesses or conditions, so they can see that some people are actually functional with their diseases and they can very well be a normal part of the society.


Thank you Terry. Thank you, for writing this book.

[L.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Article first published as Book Review:A Great Place for a Seizure by Terry Tracy on Blogcritics.

Epilepsy is still one of those disorders shrouded in mystery. Often an injury or a fever can bring it on abruptly. It can start early in life and then disappear, or it can onset later to cleave to life and make it more difficult and hard to live life to the fullest.

In A Great Place for a Seizure by Terry Tracy we follow the life of Mischa Dunn. Beginning her seizures after her 14th birthday, she has had to live with them for as long as she can remember. Words such as aura, grand mal, petit mall and others mean more to those who have experienced them, and their caretakers and friends then to most anyone else. Those uninitiated to epilepsy or seizures may have heard the words vaguely and might even have a good understanding and yet unless you have been there they are only words.

Building a life around the possibility of seizure is difficult and overbearing for some, yet Terry Tracy has done a great job of creating a character that lives her life with dignity and grace, regardless of her disability. We follow her life through school, college, work, marriage and patent hood, and we learn the lessons of the flaws that afflict others, and I would have to say we take a lesson from the characterization of this work. Not everyone with epilepsy is able to relegate it the way that Mischa does, and yet the same can be said of most people on life in particular. It is not everyone that can live a life of grace and caring, with or without illness, and it is quite instructive to get a depth of information about such a secretive disability, though the life and courage of such a brave character.

I really enjoyed this story; it is full on life and joy, but ribboned with sadness and pain, and a shadow of grief and longing.

Terry Tracy had drawn on something she knows quite well, and built a story to help bring–not just the illness itself to life–but to put it in perspective of living life as well. I have some experience with this myself as one of my younger sisters was diagnosed quite young, but she was not to be one of the lucky ones. She died quite young at 23. I believe that Terry Tracy has done a terrific job of bringing to light some of the fears and questions evinced by those that do not understand. It is uncomfortable to be present for a seizure, and it is easy to panic and makes things worse. Even now, we are learning more about this stressful and debilitating problem.

By invoking epilepsy and bringing it to light in such a fashion, Tracy takes away some of the mystery and makes it more of just another problem experienced in life, instead of a strange and fearful illness.

This would be a wonderful book for a book club or reading group. The characterization is excellent and the in-depth study of epilepsy is full of knowledge and information. The story itself is well told, with fact and fiction. The ending threw me off a bit, I was surprised and went back to see if I was missing something, but it may have just been a form of letting us know that while epilepsy is a darkness, there are other more deadly and debilitating diseases that can damage a family far more and with even worse consequences.

This book was recieved free from the author. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.

[Mariellen Ghavami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an accurate reflection of what it is like to live with epilepsy. I have been living with the harsh reality of epilepsy for the last 4 years after a mosquito bite changed my life forever ( West Nile virus ). I have seen numerous neurologists and been on more meds then I can count and my seizures are deemed intractable. The last few chapters were my recent life verbatim after I went 7 months seizure free during pregnancy and then a torrent of seizure as my hormones changed. In the process of trying hormonal therapy and flew to NY to see a specialist from CA. Seeing how my seizure affect my abilities as a mother has scared me to death and given me the drive to forge on for some improvement. I am so grateful for Terry Tracey for writing this book that gives an honest inside look at epilepsy. The lack of education and mystery surrounding epilepsy astounds me and is something I've become passionate about changing. Write another book Tracey!

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Great Place for a Seizure, is a novel about life with epilepsy. My review copy was provided courtesy of the author, Terry Tracy.

A Great Place for a Seizure reads like a memoir. In fact, several times in the beginning I had to recheck the author’s name to make sure I wasn’t in fact reading one. After reading the author’s biography, I realized why the book rang so authentically in that regard – the author does, in fact, have epilepsy.

I have always been intrigued when an author writes a fictionalized story that tracks elements or conditions of his/her “real” life. I never really understood why until I started writing myself. The adage, “write what you know”, is an adage for a reason – it is much easier to do, first of all, and second, it happens even when you don’t mean it to. I have been surprised how many of my characters turned out to be lawyers, avid readers, and single-for-a-long-time women – even when they didn’t start out that way. What we know so shapes who we are and how we think that it sneaks in and colors our words in ways most of us don’t even realize.

But I digress. Heavily. As I am wont to do. Sorry Terry, back to the review!

As I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself, the novel is the evolutionary story of Mischa Dunn’s experience with epilepsy, starting with her early childhood when no one (including Mischa and especially including her Chilean immigrant mother) could figure out what exactly was going on when she experienced ever-increasing seizures. As her life – and her epilepsy – progresses, Mischa learns to not only live with the condition but to come to terms with it and the role her seizures play in her life.

The story is nicely written and Mischa’s experiences do, as I mentioned earlier, have an authentic ring that holds true throughout the novel. At times I found the pacing a little slower than I normally like, but the author’s dedication to explaining what it means to lose time – and control – during seizures is sincere and obviously heartfelt and that generally made up for prose that might have otherwise felt too slow-going.

Tracy manages to tell Mischa’s tale in a realistic, no-holds-barred fashion without wallowing in any self-pity or devolving into anger or bitterness – no small task. She should be commended indeed for that, I think. All too many authors tend to veer wildly in the opposite direction – a tendency that makes me as a reader cringe and close a book. So well done Terry!

[Loretta]

Terry Tracy has coined her text, A Great Place for a Seizure, a "novelory." She explains that a novelory is a fusion of the terms novel and short story that describes "a series of linked stories that may stand by themselves as individual tales and/or come together as a novel, when read in sequence." The linked short stories genre has become quite popular recently, with books like Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad winning the Pulitzer Prize. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, This is How You Loose Her by Junot Diaz, Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, The Beggar Maid by Alice Munroe, Troublemaker and Other Saints by Christina Chiu,Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry, In Case We're Separated by Alice Mattison... Just to name a few. However, these books are, in fact, examples of linked short stories that come together as a novel. Terry's book is not. This is a progression of chronological events about the life of a young Chilean immigrant as she grows into adulthood while managing her epilepsy.

These individual chapters do not work on their own. They are not individual tales but simply chapters... Wordy, cliched chapters. We have the you-need-find-a-rich-husband Latina mother, the virginal, studious protagonist, mild ableism that is not really interrogated (With this awkward and clunky dialog expressed by the protagonist's principle: "Mischa, I want to talk about your plans for next year. I think you should pull out of the race for student body president. You are epileptic and that would interfere with the job. I don't think you could handle the pressure.") Yes, I am sure Mischa is aware she is epileptic... Necessary for you to point that out, was it? This after school special type of dialog becomes frustrating to read by the second chapter but it continues throughout the book.

Even more frustrating is the awkward and condescending way much of the background is lectured to readers as if we where in an introductory college class where the instructor read directly from the dry yet self righteous text book. Mischa's family is forced to leave Chile when Pinochet's coup is successful. However, we don't really see any of this. We are given a didactic synopsis of the coup and the government suppression that followed. But, again, I felt like I was sitting in an undergrad class on the History of Latin American countries.

While this "novelory" feels earnest, in the end I just felt frustrated reading it.

[Pepca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Great Place for a Seizure tells us a fictional life-story of an epileptic. However, this book is much more than just that, as it introduces the reader to places, people and cultures halfway across the globe, from Chile to the States, Guatemala, and United Kingdom.

Though numerous topics are interesting, the transitions between them are sometimes jumpy and therefore confusing. Tracy’s writing is in some places matter-of-factly, and medical explanations are tedious, although educational, on some spots. There are some grammatical mistakes; however, they do not interfere with reading. The strongest point of Tracy’s writing is her exploration of emotions and mentality of the main protagonist.

Misha is an admirable character for her clear-headed personality and strength. She insists upon not letting her medical condition dictate the way she lives or hinder what she can accomplish. I can relate to Misha in regard to her experience with doctors. I have a great respect for many good, caring and devoted doctors. Yet, I am also familiar with doctors who treat patients as machines in need of repair, writing prescription and recommending surgeries without giving the patient a say, such doctors as Misha encounters many times.

I did not care much for Hector, Misha’s husband, at first, mainly because he and his relationship with Misha are underrepresented initially – their meeting and forming a life together is simply stated as a series of facts, which results in the lack of emotional involvement on the part of the reader. However, that changes when the author shows Hector standing up for Misha towards the end of the book and finally lets the reader into his mind. I liked that Hector very much and I just wish he had been better portrayed from the beginning.

On the whole, A Great Place for a Seizure is a good testimony of how a person should not be discouraged by a medical condition and should aspire to live a full life.

RECOMMENDATION: Despite a few of my complaints, I think this is a book everyone could benefit from, as the reader may learn something about the people living, not only with epilepsy, but with any kind of medical condition.

Thanks to the author for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

[Jane Wilson-Howarth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel – unsurprisingly – is dominated by epilepsy and the ups and downs of coping with its life-sentence. The central character, Mischa, is a strong woman who never seems like a victim, and I would guess that reading about how she achieved this may be helpful to others with long-lasting health challenges. There are also fascinating insights in doctor patient interactions, and how to support not pity people with health issues. I read about the recent relaxation of racist laws in the US with horror: that within living memory mixed marriage had not been allowed in certain states, while people were disappearing in Chile. While descriptions of the shenanigans of life in Washington DC working for “advocacy groups, think tanks and foundations”, although enlightening, did slow up the narrative quite a bit.

There were quite a lot of unfamiliar Americanisms – wonks, gyros, K Street, brownstones – but I really enjoyed the explanation of why Brits find Americans annoyingly talkative. Tracy explains that the English wait for people to finish what they are saying before responding, while Americans feel the need to fill space with words so talk and talk expecting to be interrupted by an interested listener. But to a Brit that would be just rude. And I’m sorry, so very sorry, that Americans are annoyed by the way we apologise all the time. I was, though, surprised by Tracy’s description of Cambridge as “a cluster of castles, cathedrals and manor houses..” given that she lived in the city for a WHILE.

The book contains lots of lovely, eminently quotable paragraphs and one of my favourites is “a person would never wish for tragedy, but there can be a kind of transformation that results. There is an awfulness to it, but also a form of grace.”

[J.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put 3 stars for two different ratings.

2/5 stars: The first rating is a more "objective" critique of the novel. And that is the first problem. The book says that it is a novelory. However, the chapters do not all work well as individual stories. It's simply a novel with a few places that have large gaps in time. In this, it is not the kind of book that will really pull into the story. Also, many of the themes, and what the story seems to say about them, often appear to contradict, and in the end remain hollow without anything to motivate the reader to consider it more closely. This makes it feel like a novel that can't decide what to say or what story to tell.

4/5 stars: The second rating is a much more about my personal opinion. The only reason I don't give it five is simply all the politics (possibly my least favorite subject). Other than that, it is a wonderful look at epilepsy and its affects on who we are. I have had temporal lobe seizures since I was 6 or 7. However, unlike the character in the novel, I have had very few (less than ten out of hundreds/thousands...?) that went beyond the temporal lobe. So mine rarely caused convulsions. For me it was amazing to feel the connection between the character's views of her epilepsy and my own despite the differences in their form. It was encouraging to find that I was not the only one who could not determine if it was friend or foe.

In the end, if you are epileptic or trying to understand someone who is, this is a great book to read. If you have no connection to epilepsy or an epileptic and only want a well-crafted, original story, it probably won't have the same effect.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mischa isn't going to let something like her seizures keep her from doing the things that she wants to do. A Great Place for a Seizure follows Mischa over about 30 years from as a child in Chile until she's an adult. Seizures and epilepsy are not things that I know a lot about so it was interesting to read a book where they played such a prominent role. Mischa goes through a lot throughout her life to figure out how to cope with these issues. Some of the medical sections of the book went a little over my head but what really kept me going was that Mischa is a force to be reckoned with. She takes everything in stride.


The book is set in many different places (Chile, UK, and Washington DC). Of course, I really liked the parts set in DC. Mischa's apartment when she first moves to Washington is not all that far from where I live now, which is pretty cool. I always enjoy reading about places I know well.



Mischa is also involved with some of the things that I know well from my own experience as well as studying Latin American politics in college. Father Roy, who protested against the School of the Americas that has trained a lot of insurgents at Ft. Benning (very controversial; find out more about Father Roy here). It was interesting to see him make an appearance.


This book was definitely a good read about a strong character!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm...let me see... I'm finding the words to describe my experience reading this book, hard to come by. As the mum of a little girl with Epilepsy & having read a lot about the condition, doing my own research & attending various workshops/information sessions on the subject, I found the content IMHO accurate and informative. It was interesting to hear about her experiences & feelings etc, both before & after a seizure. Isabella isn't able to communicate her feelings about her seizures yet to me but the description of them in the book, whilst I appreciate everyone would be different, gives me more of an idea of what it's like for her. I found the story quite inspirational & gave me a sense of what can be accomplished with determination & her being unwilling to let her condition define her. She has Epilepsy but Epilepsy does not have her... I read this book on my Kindle so made good use of the highlighter : ) & have made notes to look back on when I feel the need. I found it quite...whats the word...hmmm not sure...but the name of one of the characters was Isabelle. At times I found it a hard to read because of the personal connections I was making & often found myself with tears streaming down my face but I'm so glad I took the time to read it !

[Dana Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This blog post is coming to you from the land of 'totally blown away'!! What an amazing novel. The first thing I loved about it was the table of contents. I don't think I've ever said that about a book before. The chapters are all place names - the library, the coffee shop, the office, etc. These are the answers to the Jeopardy question 'Where is a great place to have a seizure?' Now, I have to admit that sarcasm and irony are without a doubt my favorite forms of humour so this book appealed to me from page one. The reader is slowly pulled into Mischa's life and, before realizing it, has become her friend and confidant. I have said it in previous reviews but it bears repeating - I love strong female leads! Mischa may have epilepsy but epilepsy does not have her. It is a part of her life but doesn't even begin to define her life. And, I promise not to give it away, the ending is totally unexpected, heart wrenching and beautiful. Great job Terry Tracy!!

[Tara Chevrestt · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a woman also wearing the brand, "disabled," I was eager to read this book. It's a fictional tale, the life of a Chilean American girl whose life is dramatically changed forever at the age of 14. No, it's not drugs, alcohol, or divorce. It's epilepsy. Mischa is afflicted with seizures. They come out of nowhere, they are sometimes tiny and barely noticeable and other times, huge resulting in bruises, chipped teeth, appalled bystanders...

For full review, please click on the link below.

http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2011/...

[Ginnie Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has epilepsy, I felt so seen in this one. I related so much to Mischa. I'll share my rating and more thoughts in my November Wrap Up video. In the meantime, check out my winter reading challenge here Prepare for Winter with the Warm Up and Read Challenge! ⛄ BOOKMAS #1

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wanted to know what a seizure feels like and its aftereffects and this novel seems to paint a pretty good picture of it. The ending is not what I expected - it really made you think.

[Chelsi Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

meh.

[Meagan Schwieder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description of emotions and feelings were gripping and spot on.