Review: 'Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family' by Robert Kolker

 I read Susannah Cahalan's The Great Pretender in late 2019 and it brought my interest in mental health and mental disorders roaring back. I am fascinated by our brains and how powerful yet fragile they are. So when Hidden Valley Road did the publicity rounds last year I was of course intrigued. I finally got my hands on a copy and I'm happy to say the wait was worth it.

Original Pub. Date: 07/04/2020
Publisher: Doubleday Books 

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

Mental illness is receiving a lot more attention these days than years, or even decades, ago. But that doesn't mean that true understanding has increased along the same lines. Many of these illnesses are still sensationalized in popular culture while science struggles to find answers, explanations and cures. As I mentioned further above, The Great Pretender made me realize that there was much I didn't know about psychology and mental health and much I was misunderstanding. With Hidden Valley Road I hoped to gain further insight into schizophrenia specifically, but also into the scientific work taking place. Kolker's book manages to do both, bringing with it the inevitable disappointment in the pharmaceutical industry. As families do their best to cope and trauma accumulates, the lack of foreseeable profits halts research. Hidden Valley Road is a frustrating read because of the lack of answers and solutions, but it is also an inspiring read, full of love and hope.

The Galvin family was dealt a rough hand. Kolker starts us at the beginning, with Mimi and Don, young, hopeful, in love. World War II temporarily tears them apart, but not before they manage to get hitched and conceive their first child. Despite Mimi's hopes and plans, Don continues on a with a military career, dragging the ever-growing family across the US before they finally settle in Colorado. By the time their brood has grown to twelve children, ten boys and two girls, it becomes clear that something isn't right. The oldest, Donald, feels disconnected from other people, unsure of how to act and how to connect, with a violent streak. The second, Jim, is the rebel, trying to be a contrast to his "perfect" brother but eerily similar in temper. As the household erupts into occasional violence, son after son falls ill. Kolker handles this narrative carefully, trying to give each Galvin child the attention they deserve while giving the lay reader a background in mental health and genetic research to understand the family's importance. As Hidden Valley Road hops back and forth in time, the narrative is mostly led by the two daughters, Margaret and Lindsey, free of schizophrenia but burdened by a traumatic childhood. In their contrasting approaches to their family, Kolker tries to show the damage conditions like schizophrenia can do and the ineffective plaster that is the medication currently available.

Robert Kolker's novel could have so easily devolved into sensationalism. Look how ill they are! Look how many of them there are! Look how ineffective the parents were in stopping it! But instead Kolker constantly chooses a human approach, always centralizing the people and their experiences, not the potential headlines and gossip. There are many difficult topics in this book which are hard to read and must have been hard to write, but Kolker does so respectfully and without cutting corners. He does his best to individualize them and give each of their stories the attention it deserves. As an aide, each chapter starts with a list of family names, those highlighted that the chapter is about. At times you will struggle to keep all the siblings apart, though. Overall, despite its difficult topic, Hidden Valley Road is a fascinating and gripping read, full of information, without being too overwhelming, and pathos. 

I give this review...

4 Universes!

Hidden Valley Road lived up to all of my expectations. It gives the reader a fascinating insight into a family plagued by mental illness that may just hold the key to unlocking schizophrenia. This feels like the kind of book that should be recommended to everyone.