The US Review of Books (USRB) commended Edward Lapointe’s “His Grace in the Midst of Tragedy” because “Lapointe’s adventures and observations as an inmate in a mental institution are fascinating and occasionally heartbreaking”
“His Grace in the Midst of Tragedy” by Edward Lapointe is highly praised by Sarah Poulette of the US Review of Books. This book is not a mere book but a testimony of the author’s life and his struggle with schizophrenia.
One night in 1976, Lapointe, a Vietnam veteran with a young family, started experiencing frightening and violent delusions. In an attempt to defend himself and his family from the terrifying fate he was certain awaited them, he stood guard in his house with a gun—and ended up shooting his wife. Stricken, he turned the gun on himself, but while his shot damaged his cheek and jaw, it miraculously missed most of his face and head.
This memoir describes the turn Lapointe’s life took after that horrible night. He spent months in hospitals recovering from his self-inflicted injuries and would return years later for the reconstruction of his face and jaw. But most of the decade following the shooting was spent in a mental institution, where he received a diagnosis and eventually treatment for his paranoid schizophrenia.
If you should decide to read it, you will take a journey through a horrific tragedy through the eyes and mind of a paranoid psychotic man, years of hospitalization, psychotropic medications with side effects that sometimes seemed worse than the schizophrenia, reconstructive surgeries, and a trial that held his freedom in the balance.
You’ll read of the years of continued drug and alcohol abuse and the self-defeating sabotaging of good things in his life, even when he was not aware of how he was destroying any hope of recovery. (To be perfectly honest, he did not know if he wanted recovery.) All he could feel was guilt and shame.
Then it happened—a supernatural experience with the Lord of all the earth. That night, he received his salvation. Now he had hope! His life has not been the same since that night. Yes, there were still ups and downs and four more years of hospitalization, but this time it was different; he had a whole new outlook. Today he is a totally free man, and it is all because of Jesus. If you decide to read this book, he hopes you will not be disappointed.
Here’s an excerpt from the US Review of Books that highlights:
“… He presents what could be melodramatic scenes with a journalist’s eye for minimalism and offers occasional wry critiques of the criminal justice system. Even though his illness took his family and freedom from him, Lapointe never comes across as bitter. For example, while he posits that the violence he encountered in the military may have triggered his schizophrenia, he never regrets serving his country.
The details of Lapointe’s memoir sound grim, but during those long months in the hospital, he realized he would like to better know Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus. It would take him years to fully commit himself to his faith, but he includes throughout his memoir moments that he knows his God was with him from the start, helping him through some of his darkest hours. His faith and optimism infuse the entire memoir with a tone of hope.”