I've read a fair number of “hey I had or have a mental illness and it's hard” memoirs and been left emotionally untouched by some of them. My guess is that—for the majority of these books- the memoirs that get published involve extreme peril, extreme situations and extreme illness. Well, or celebrity and possibly substance abuse (which never seems to work too well with major mental illness) . Using a formula of “I did this + this happened = the end” is one way of telling a story, and certainly a valid one, but not easy to relate to.David Lovelace's memoir Scattershot: My Bipolar Family is different from this in a couple of different ways. First, because the authors writes not only about himself, but also about his family, it simply can't be as narrow and narrative as a first person autobiographical narrative. Secondly, because he addresses not only behavior and illness but also consequences, the book becomes instantly relatable. Even if most people haven't dealt with bipolar in their families or their person life, almost all people have the experience of creating a negative life impact for the people around them, even when we try very hard to have this not be the case. It is this that makes Scattershot such a poignant memoir. It is a book populated with family members trying hard, but not always being able to manage their illness and the way it can cause chaos around them. When there is no enemy, no bad guy to speak of, the difficulty and the occassional “wins” become even more poignant.