In a word, Hear All The Bells is unexpected. The memoir takes the topic of mental illness, so alien and frightening to many people, and makes it accessible. Specifically, Hear All The Bells gives the reader a view below the surface of manic depressive illness, also called bipolar disorder.

Although the book is sometimes painful and disorienting, Hear All The Bells tells an optimistic, engaging, and deeply personal story. The reader becomes a co-traveler on a strange journey, experiencing the world through the eyes of someone in the extreme states of mania,...