Detour - by Lizzie Simon (Paperback)

About the Book

In the fall of 1999, 23-year-old Simon hit the road on a journey that took her across the United States. Her inspired interviews with other young men and women suffering from manic depression comprise the heart and soul of this remarkable memoir.

Book Synopsis

By all appearances, Lizzie Simon was perfect. She had an Ivy League education, lots of friends, a loving family, and a dazzling career as a theater producer by the age of twenty-three. But that wasn't enough: Lizzie still felt alone in the world, and largely misunderstood. Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager, she longed to meet others like herself; she wanted to hear the experiences of those who managed to move past their manic-depression and lead normal lives. So Lizzie hits the road, hoping to find "a herd of her own." Along the way she finds romance and madness, survivors and sufferers, and, somewhere between the lanes, herself. Part road trip, part love story, Detour is a fast-paced, enduring memoir that demystifies mental illness while it embraces the universally human struggle to become whole.

Review Quotes

The Village Voice [U]tterly unselfconscious, funny, [and] harrowing.

John Berendt author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Lizzie Simon's ingenious inquiry into the nature and treatment of manic depression -- her own as well as others' -- is a spellbinding revelation.

Peter D. Kramer author of Listening to Prozac Detour does for bipolar disorder what Prozac Nation did for depression -- scopes it out from the viewpoint of someone who is young, hip, and vulnerable.

About the Author

Lizzie Simon, a graduate of Columbia University, was the creative producer of the Obie Award-winning Flea Theater in Manhattan. She recently was a consultant and field producer for the MTV special "True Life: I'm Bipolar," which was inspired by Detour. The recipient of a grant from the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, Lizzie is a frequent guest speaker and freelance writer. Visit her Web site at www.lizziesimon.com.