Mark Vonnegut, author of "The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity"

Edward Podvoll’s [Recovering Sanity] is far and away the best written, most cogent, compelling history of our attempts to come to terms with the fascinating terrifying monster of madness. What kills most books about insanity is the almost irresistible urge to romance the disease and project our social, aesthetic, religious values onto such a big inviting canvas. Edward Podvoll’s book is admirably free of such romance. We are all still a million miles away from knowing enough to say who will and who won’t get better and what we can do to improve our odds, but we will look long and hard without finding a better statement of the problem.

— Mark Vonnegut, author of The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity