The Bullet: A Memoir

by Tom Lee

A powerful and deeply personal exploration of mental health, and an indelible account of the legacy of familial illness and living with a fracturing mindLike many people, Tom Lee remembers the presence - somewhere out of sight, on the outskirts of town - of the local psychiatric hospital. It was a place that inspired jokes, rumours, and dread, a place where the strange and deranged were kept away. But among those people were, at different times, Tom's own parents. Afterwards, those times were not much spoken about and before long the hospital closed, as part of the nationwide shutting down of psychiatric institutions. For many years, Tom believed that he had dodged the bullet of the mental illness that had marked the lives of his parents. But then, quite out of the blue, he has a crisis of his own and finds himself returning to the past for clues. The Bullet is an attempt to piece together and understand what happened to his parents and what happened to him. It is also a story about how we have tried and spectacularly failed to care for people suffering with mental illness, and about the terrifying fragility and unknowability of the human mind.

Genres: Nonfiction

173 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 2, 2024

About the author

For the Australian novelist, see https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Tom Lee is a British novelist and teachers at Goldsmiths University. His debut novel is 'The Alarming Palsy of James Orr'.

Reviews

[Camila Smith]

I’ve finished reading this one last night - being someone who has struggled with mental illness since I can remember, due to genes instead of trauma, it heavily resonated with me. Not gonna lie, I’ve cried at a few instances out of relief to see such a candid narrative of how daunting this journey is, how our families’ mental health history also shapes us immensely. Highly recommend and be kind to each other, mostly to yourselves 💙

[Jonah Cavallo]

Would not have foreseen a book on this subject to be so unputdownable. It goes in deep but is written with a clarity, balance and quiet humanity that means it never overwhelms. A fantastic read.

[Chantelle]

Amazing account of mental health within a family and how it impacts in the moment and the future…

[Martha Simpkins]

Beautifully narrated, insightful and eye-opening.

[Ella Dean]

Such an interesting take on it all and surprisingly funny