Heart Berries : : a Memoir

Locations
Call Number: 362.196 Ma, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Mailhot, Terese Marie
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	362.196 Ma	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Mailhot, Terese Marie	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Mailhot, Terese Marie	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Mailhot, Terese Marie	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Indian condition -- Heart berries -- Indian sick -- In a pecan field -- Your black eye and my birth -- I know I'll go -- Little Mountain Woman -- The leaving deficit -- Thunder Being Honey Bear -- Indian condition -- Better parts.
"Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father-an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist-who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Mailhot trusts the reader to understand that memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination, pain, and what we can bring ourselves to accept. Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world."-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

**** submitted by shannonwait on July 29, 2018, 7:41am A really interesting and moving debut. At times, a challenge to follow and very raw but very affecting. I look forward to Mailhot's future works.

Beautiful and Emotional submitted by dntanzer on August 31, 2018, 3:35pm The writing for this memoir is lyrical and flows very well. Sometimes it can be a little confusing or repetitive, but this was a bit towards the end. For the most part, it was a gorgeous, but heartwrenching look at Mailhot's life and hardships.

Heavy, difficult to read, but ultimately affirming submitted by nemiller on July 16, 2021, 8:44pm Terese Maire Mailhot's memoir is sad, and difficult, and heavy. It doesn't end with a cliche of hope. And yet, for all the weight, there is something affirming in reading this.

I started listening to the audiobook, but I found Rainy Field's relentlessly flat narration too difficult to listen to, so I read the text version instead. (I don't think Field's narration was bad, just that I, personally, had trouble with it. I think the flatness, and the relentlessness, was probably the point.)

An incredible writer submitted by redwood on June 13, 2022, 12:31pm Mailhot's chronology and style are innovative, her words all deeply felt. This isn't just a sad story, but an imaginative work of literature, and an important entry into the canon of mental health memoirs.