I found this to be a tough and troubling read. As has been noted in other reviews, the book is divided into two parts: the writings of Dr Perry Baird as well as medical notes and observations from various mental institutions where he he was kept for manic depression, and his daughter's discovery of the manuscript and through her own research, his previously unknown and untold story and the impact his complete removal from her life at an early age had. Desperate to know the father that no one will mention, and 50 years after she was told he was ill and taken away, she spends considerable effort piecing the story together. It's as if she has discovered that she had a broken heart and had not known it before. The descriptions of treatments in the hospitals are harrowing and disturbing, even when you consider what was known about mental illness in the 40' and 50's. But I also am not sure he is a reliable narrator: prone to hallucinations, fabrications, exaggerations and out right lying. His manic and depressive episodes are painful to read and untrustworthy as fact.