Source: Grace's Blog
Date: May 27, 2009

“Life Is Like a Line” is the eloquent journey into the mind of an individual suffering since childhood from a mood disorder that has preyed on her emotions and affected her in every conceivable way.

Frequently exhilarated, often violently angry, and nearly constantly terrified, high achiever Cynthia Sabotka has spent her life running, nearly always at full speed. For most of her life, she had no idea what she was running from. With suicidal ideation leading her ever closer to the brink of disaster, Cynthia embarked upon a journey of discovery. A determined psychiatrist, medication, and therapy ultimately saved her life, as well as her marriage. After several false starts and medication side effects so debilitating many individuals would have given up rather than endure them, she learned that she can live life on the line.

Life on the line means Cynthia lives a stable, rational, emotionally predictable life, rather than soaring maniacally above the line, where she drives faster, talks louder, and takes appallingly dangerous risks, or plummeting below the line, where she hides, nearly paralyzed with terror and confusion, in the sanctuary of her bedroom. Complicated by family members and a family history as complex as they come. Life Is Like a Line is ultimately the memoir of one woman s triumph over the myriad forces that inexplicably but inevitably worked to bring her to the brink of despair and disaster.

Engrossing and enlightening, it offers an intimate peek into a fascinating mind and its triumph over itself.

My Review:

I expected to have a difficult time getting into this book. I was afraid that it was going to have a lot of medical terminology and jargon and that stuff goes right over my head. Anyone who knows me knows that science is my weak point. I was so thankful that this book turned out to be more of a memoir and a family history.

Life is Like a Line really brings you into Sabotka’s family, through her eyes. Sabotka gives a intriguing family history through her use of elegant prose and journal entries. I really loved the journal entries. They made the story more real and less clinical than it could have been. I almost wish that there had been more of them. Although at points, I did find that the prose and journal entries seemed a bit disjointed and the transitions between them could have been smoother. This, however, did not detract from the overall reading experience much. Otherwise, Life is Like a Line is beautifully written. Sabotka’s writing style brought me into the story. I couldn’t have put it down if I tried.

This book really did help me learn more about bipolar disorder. It gave it a name and a face whereas before it was just a vague idea. I admired Cynthia’s strength and determination. She never wavered and I really respect that. It was probably her strength that attracted me to this book and kept me interested.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a better understanding of bipolar disorder and for an engaging story about a strong and intelligent woman.

Rating-4.5 stars