Book Review: Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett

Shortlisted for the National Book Award and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, Imagine Me Gone is a story told with compassion, insight, and shots of humour. Viewed from the alternating perspectives of the three siblings and their parents in the form of letters, monologues, and reports, this novel captures a family’s struggle with the elder brother/son’s mental illness. Depression and anxiety, to quote Michael’s father John, who also has this affliction, ‘The monster you lie with is your own. The struggle is endlessly private.’

And it is through and around Michael that Adam Haslett best displays his prowess, pulling and interweaving all the narrative strands together. Showing us how difficult the question ‘how much do you give of yourself, before damage is done’ really is. Make no mistake, this is a family who love Michael, but their struggles to support him result in his sister Cecelia's almost obsessive micromanaging, his brother Seth unable to commit to an intimate relationship, and his mother Margaret struggling financially.

Although Michael suffers from mental illness, he has a couple of traits which help him navigate through life. A very wry sense of humour (making up outlandish stories of an attempted child abduction and an outbreak of dengue fever) and his love of the arriving house/techno music scene. Hence the following excerpt from his always articulate mind:

‘ Repurposing historical forces of that size required the power of volume, i.e., a sound system that shook your rib cage, whose sub woofers slapped air to your brow with every beat of the kick drum. Music thick as a hurricane When the world wants to kill you, sometimes inoculation requires killing little bits of yourself. In this case, your eardrums.’

This is no easy read. I had to put the book down in the first third of the novel to digest what I had read. It was like I'd been sucker punched. Though I have read a couple of other novels regarding mental health, such as She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, it is Halsett’s rendering which left me conflicted. And by the end of the novel, I’m sure you’ll understand why.

Where to get help
If it is an emergency and you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
Additional mental health resources