A two-part memoir: the first half describing the crisis-ridden life of a desperately ill woman who seems to have attempted suicide (quite ineffectively) with monotonous regularity, the second half written after one of her attempts nearly succeeded and she had the proverbial wake-up call and finally went into real recovery. The author, who was also a novelist, was married to Davis Dresser, who wrote mystery novels under the name Brett Halliday. I think today she might have been diagnosed with a borderline personality. She does an effective job describing the various treatments, psychotherapies (including LSD-facilitated therapy) and hospitalizations she went through, beginning during World War II.

This is well-written, but it feels unfinished to me -- I find myself wondering what happened to her, whether she actually kept to the path of mental health after she finished her book, or fell back into her old ways. I looked online but I can't find anything about her later life. ( )