Review of You, This Is Me...OVER?!

[Asa Nylund]

[Following is a volunteer review of "You, This Is Me...OVER?!" by Clinton Beaudel Dooley.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Question: What is the first rule of being lost in the wildness? Answer: Admit you are lost...right?

This book was probably not easy to write - and not always easy to read. Clint Dooley describes what it is like to come back from war with PTSD. Lost, with no instruction manual on how to cope with trauma. The book is classified as poetry, but there are also stories about his life, and personal reflections to give some context to the poems. It is an effort to bring awareness to something that is not talked about or treated enough; research shows that people with PTSD are twice as likely to kill themselves as others. One has to admire the author for having the courage to be so open and personal. He talks about how close he came to suicide, about his love for his wife, about battles, about not being the same person anymore, and about the fear of an unmapped future. Yet the book ends on a hopeful note.
I found a love and beauty in this world again

I liked many things about the book. Dooley´s depiction of the harshness of PTSD and the fears of mental illness moved me more than any academic text on the subject could have. The descriptions of what it is to be in combat are very raw, and the love poems are very tender. The last chapter of the book challenges us all to reflect upon the direction of our lives.
However, there were also large parts that seemed to be just free-flowing thoughts scribbled down on paper, without much afterthought or editing. After having read the whole book, I realized it is - at least partly - a conscious choice; the reader doesn´t get at a literary version of the author´s thoughts, but the authentic words. Still, it makes parts of the texts cumbersome to follow, and the reader runs the risk of getting lost in the avalanche of words. This is a book that requires to be read slowly.

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You, This Is Me...OVER?!
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