Breaking Out

by Bob Brink

As a child growing up in various cities and towns, Britt Rutgers exhibits both acute sensitivity and an insatiable ebullience that expresses itself in rebelliousness against his restrictive parents. But something profoundly important is missing deep inside. As he moves into his late teens in the 1950s on a farm near Mayfield, Iowa, his enthusiasm gradually morphs into agonizing self-consciousness, feelings of guilt, embarrassment over sexual naïveté, and fear wrought by his fundamentalist religious upbringing. His parents have always placed his quiet older brother on a pedestal, and Britt begins to emulate him. Battling these internal demons, Britt is unable to concentrate and becomes panicky that he will fail his school subjects. When Britt heads out for a night of bowling in February of his senior year, he has no idea that everything is about to change. Taunted by his friends, he returns home and tearfully confides to his parents that he has been miserable for some time. They send him to a sanitarium, where he is quickly diagnosed with schizophrenia and shock treatments are begun. Over the next several years, between two periods spent in psychiatric institutions observing a plethora of colorful, and tragic, characters, Britt struggles not merely to function, but to flourish. Breaking Out explores a family's dynamics and history, revealing the forces that shape an innocent child and make a train wreck of his crossing from adolescence into adulthood.

244 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2010

About the author

Bob Brink is a journalist who worked with the Palm Beach Post, The Associated Press in Chicago, Milwaukee Journal, Tampa Tribune, Joliet Herald-News, and Palm Beach Media Group (magazines). His byline has been on thousands of news stories, features, and entertainment reviews.
He has been a freelance writer for several years, and now is embarked on writing novels. To promote his books, the current one being BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS, he has a website, with a blog on which he addresses activities involving his books, other books, and three passions: grammar, alternative health care, and socio-political issues. The website address is: www.bobbrinkwriter.com.
Blood on Their Hands is a legal thriller that opens with the brutal police beating of a Black man and has the theme of racial injustice running throughout. It was published in May 2020 by TouchPoint Press.
His preceding novel, Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died, is closely based on a real, 1976 murder that made headlines for 15 years, and has gained notoriety again with a new crinkle in the case.
Brink has won numerous writing accolades and several awards, including three for Palm Beach Illustrated, which won the Best Written Magazine award from the Florida Magazine Association after he became copy chief and writer.
Besides dabbling in short-story writing over the years, Brink immersed himself in learning to play the clarinet and tenor saxophone. He performed many years with an estimable, 65-piece community symphonic band, and played a few professional big band gigs. He relegated music to the back seat after embarking on writing novels.
A product of Michigan and Iowa, Brink has a bachelor’s degree in English from Drake University in Des Moines and completed graduate journalism studies at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Reviews

[Paula Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Practice Cake by Dalya Moon , it was interesting to read Breaking out by Bib Brink and recieve a male's POV. Set in the 1950's in America - a society that was still in the old-school type of thinking , the years before the free-spirited of love and passion hit in the 60's we meet teenager Britt . Unlike his mates who are talking about hard-on's , sex and girls , he hasn't yet reached the level of feeling alright to talk about it . Britt has grown up in an environment where he has been described as emotionally sensitive and naive and now he is about to discover just how innocent he is as he reaches into the stage of awkwardness, self-consciouness and most of all confusion. Britt tries hard to hide his feelings until one night during a bowling game , they all come tumbling out and he soon finds himself the victim of taunts . Desperate and miserable , Britt tries to turn to the two people he thought he could trust in the world - his parents only to find himself shipped off to an institution and eventually diagnosed as a schizophrenia. What was scary about Breaking out is that it describes the way Mental Health was dealt with back then with shock treatments etc. The rest of the novel describes Britt's up's and down's and his journey through the mental health system and eventually getting to the root of the problem and discovering the true Britt. A novel that I think guy's will enjoy more than girls as it explains a teenage guy's transformation from Teenagehood to adulthood .