Schizophrenia seems like a massive challenge by itself, but if you add dissociative identity disorder to it then you get, well, Michael Dodd! Dodd is one of two main characters in the excellent American Alt by Chris Lockhart. Lockhart, the author, is the other main character who doesn’t have either of those mental disorders, but he’s got some challenges he is facing, too.
I wasn’t totally sure what this book would include. The subtitle suggests that the state of the country may be a big talking point. This led me to worry that I was going to get a politically motivated sociology lecture and I cannot begin to tell you how little I would have cared. Luckily, anytime there is politics that come up, it is always from a character whose political views are immaterial to the story. This is mainly because the people who spout off about the government are Dodd’s alternate personalities. The book is also not true crime. While Dodd starts off the book under government supervision, this is not a case of whodunit. Well, it kind of is in that we wonder which alter did what, but the crime is not the story.
What this book is about is the friendship of Lockhart and Dodd. Lockhart returns to his home state of Washington after a major loss. He is a self-proclaimed nomad who would probably just disappear from town once again until his old friend Dodd calls from a psychiatric center. At its heart, the narrative is a buddy road trip to try and unravel the brain of Dodd and understand what his alters are trying to do. It’s a love letter to the state of Washington, friendship, and dealing with your trauma.
My enjoyment of the writing evolved over the course of the book. Lockhart is a descriptive writer and his prose can border on flowery at times. It’s not overwhelming, but at first it was noticeable. As the book goes on, it becomes less and less, almost mirroring Lockhart’s slow dropping of his defenses in the story. It also helps to contrast with whenever Dodd’s alters take over the narrative to tell stories to Lockhart. There are books where authors are just trying to show off how smart and artsy they are. Here, I felt Lockhart was doing something with his choices and it works. Highly recommend picking this one up, especially if you want something very unique in the memoir/nonfiction genre.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Bloomsbury Publishing.)
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