Roll Back the World: A Sister's Memoir

(Paperback)

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What happens to sibling relationships when your older sister, the budding poet you loved and admired as a child, falls prey to severe mental illnessWhen Deborah Kasdans sister returns from a gap year in Israel she seems to glow with health and beauty. In three years, however, Rachel is committed to a psychiatric hospital. The diagnosis: schizophrenia. In clear and vivid prose, and with the help of Rachels letters and poetry, Deborah provides a poignant look at a mid-century Jewish family under strain; offers a moving account of Rachels indomitable spirit; and explores family history from the WWII years and the Cold War, trying to make sense of what happened.

As the years pass, Deborah focuses on her own family and career but constantly feels shadowed by a sense of guilt, which is compounded when she and her other two siblings make a bold attempt to help Rachela plan that fails. Only after a mental health worker asks Rachel to write a poem does she finally gain her freedom. To Deborahs great joy, Rachel finds acceptance, despite her disabilities, in a compassionate community, including a synagogue where she returns to the religion of her youth.

Author Bio

When Deborah Kasdan retired from a thirty-five-year career writing about business and technology, she joined Westport Writers Workshop to make her personal stories come alive. She has served on the board of directors of an intergenerational housing organization and the National Organization on Mental Illness (NAMI) for Southwest CT. Her favorite activities are swimming, yoga, and visits with her four grandchildren. During the summer she and her husband reside near the great Nauset Marsh of Cape Cod and live the rest of the year in Norwalk, Connecticut. Currently she is writing a novel based on her mothers adventures during the 1930s in Chicago, where she grew up in a Jewish orphanage.