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Title details for The Kevin Show by Mary Pilon - Available

The Kevin Show

An Olympic Athlete's Battle with Mental Illness

by Mary Pilon
Andrew Sellon
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Monopolists, the incredible story of Olympic sailor Kevin Hall, and the psychiatric syndrome that makes him believe he stars in a television show of his life. Meet Kevin Hall, brother, son, husband, father, and Olympic and America's Cup sailor. Kevin has an Ivy League degree, a winning smile, and throughout his adult life, he has been engaged in an ongoing battle with a person that doesn't exist to anyone but him: the Director. Kevin suffers from what doctors are beginning to call the "Truman Show" delusion, a form of psychosis named for the 1998 movie, where the main character is trapped as the star of a reality TV show. When the Director commands Kevin to do things, the results can lead to handcuffs, hospitalization, or both. Once he nearly drove a car into Boston Harbor. His girlfriend, now wife, was in the passenger seat. In the tradition of Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, journalist Mary Pilon's The Kevin Show reveals the many-sided struggle by Kevin, his family, and the medical profession to understand and treat a psychiatric disorder whose euphoric highs and creative ties to pop culture have become inextricable from Kevin's experience of himself. Interweaving his perspective, journals, and sketches with police reports, medical records, and interviews with those who were present at key moments in his life, The Kevin Show is a bracing, suspenseful, and eye-opening view of the role that mental health plays in a seemingly ordinary life.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 16, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781501989605
      • File size: 238116 KB
      • Duration: 08:16:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 28, 2017
      Former New York Times reporter Pilon (The Monopolists) recounts the life story of Kevin Hall, a competitive sailor and two-time cancer survivor whose bipolar disorder makes him think he is the star of a reality TV show. During manic episodes, Kevin hears “the Director” command him to do things on “the Show,” such as drive his car into Boston Harbor (he’s saved when his car hits a fence) or jump off the roof of a tower (a seagull distracts him just in time). Kevin’s delusions have led to arrests, hospitalizations, psychiatric treatments, and struggles with medication, but they’ve also become part of who he is. In a breezily written, sometimes suspenseful narrative, Pilon examines Kevin’s efforts to understand and control his symptoms as he establishes himself as a competitive sailor, taking part in the America’s Cup race and the 2004 Olympics. She observes that, compared to many other mentally ill people, Kevin enjoys a “very privileged support system”; both of his parents and his wife are doctors. Though continual shifts in point of view between Kevin, his family members, and others keep the author from fully developing her ideas, her work draws attention to the toll of mental illness on individuals and their families. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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