Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

Em and the Big Hoom - Jerry Pinto
**Thank you Penguin Books and Netgalley for providing this in exchange for an honest review**
 
I don't even know where to start. This book made me laugh and it ripped my heart out and stomped on it. Pinto is a master storyteller. In this book he gives us three stories. We have Em's story. Who she started out as, who she'll end up being, and how she got there. We have the story of her children. What it was like to grow up in a house with a Bipolar parent. And we have the love story of Em and the Big Hoom. This title is full of uplifting and heartbreaking turns. I couldn't recommend this book more.
 
I've read a few books dealing with mental illness, and more then anything, they usually piss me off. Usually there is a magic pill that fixes anything. Or the character realizes just how precious their life is and the illness goes away. Those are easy cop outs some authors use. That is nothing close to the truth. I have a very close friend, S, who suffers from Bipolar disorder. Her world can be all rainbows and unicorns one minutes, then the deepest layer of hell the next. She can go from stable to a terrifying euphoric state in the blink of an eye. There is no magic pill to fix this. Oh, there pills she can take. They just turn her into a complete zombie. Or make her low moments lower and her highs even higher. Pinto realizes this. I saw so much of S in Em. There is no judgment or promise of perfection in this book. It feels like the author must have had someone close to him in real life who also suffered from a mental illness. These characters couldn't be any truer to real life.