Could have been better, a bit boring in parts. But overall ok.

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Going off as part of the Virtual Audio CD Book Box hosted by Elizabethbeard. Enjoy!

Arrived in mail today. Thank you!

I expected to like this book. I have done a great deal of reading about mental illness and the horrors that pass as cures, including lobotomy. Seeing lobotomy from the patient’s perspective is a rarity.

The story is certainly compelling. The telling of it is not. I suspect that a combination of the natural talents of Howard Dully and his co-writer, along with the effects of the lobotomy, is why the book is not all it could be. The book is unnecessarily repetitious, which takes away a lot of its power. Much of it is also infused with an adolescent point of view. I had the disturbing feeling that Howard Dully is a 50-something teenager. Or perhaps now a young adult.

I have heard that alcoholics tend to be stuck chronologically where they first became alcoholics. So if they were teens, that’s where they stay until such time as they burst free of the addiction, insofar as one can. It seems to me that the same might be said for this particular lobotomy. It was performed on Howard as a 12-year-old and his thoughts and actions for years afterwards mirror the feelings and impressions of a 12-year-old.

I became impatient with the explanations. Howard, as a young teen in Agnews, the mental hospital, did not know when he would get out. His reaction, therefore, was to “have fun”. Because he did not know nor was he able to control his future, he felt his only option was to have fun. This attitude, along with the lack of any real training for the real world, is what got him into trouble year after year. It also was the reason I had trouble liking Howard as I listened to this CD version of the book.

He recognizes, late in the book, that it was the lack of preparation for work or life outside that got him in trouble so often. Is this a common experience for people in similar situations? Those who are young and placed in mental institutions for a relatively short time? It seems an astounding lack of foresight on the part of the caretakers. How can you expect somebody to do well on the outside without the necessary skills? Even in prison inmates get an opportunity to train for some work.

The part of the book that is especially disturbing is the treatment of Howard by his stepmother Lou. The unfortunate combination of a distant father (emotionally), who does not share significant information or thoughts with his son, and a distrusting, disapproving stepmother who singled Howard out, was bound to have a significant effect on Howard’s behavior as a young child. He was beaten daily by either or both parents, he was not told of his real mother’s death when it happened (she just “left”), and it seemed to make no difference what he did. It makes sense that he acted out, that he rebelled, he made good on what his parents accused him of. When Lou took it upon herself to press for the lobotomy, Howard had nobody in his corner.

As I listened to the CDs I was also affected by the manner in which the book was read. It is not read by Howard, but by a skilled reader, who reads an attitude into the words. I was not fond of the way he read it and wondered if I would feel differently about the book if I had read the paper version. Therefore, I sought out information online, and especially looked for the NPR program featuring Howard. It was easy to find: NPR program

In this radio program we get to hear Howard narrate and talk to lobotomy experts and others affected by lobotomy. We get to hear the real Howard speak. His voice has almost a monotone quality to it, which is something I might expect of a person who has undergone a lobotomy. When he is emotionally caught up we can tell by the hesitation and difficulty speaking, so his delivery is not actually “flat”. I wonder if I would have liked the book better if it had been actually read by Howard. I think it’s possible, because it would have felt more real.

I am glad I had the opportunity to listen to this book, which I had not even heard of before I saw it on the list of books in the virtual book box. It gave me a lot to think about. I do wish it had been more skillfully written, yet it is hard to see how it could have been done without changing the character of Howard Dully.

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Added to CD audio book box hosted by carlissa.

Removing from the bookbox. Thanks!

A rather enlightening memoir of someone who lived through (& beyond) a transorbital lobotomy at age 12. I snatched this up on a whim & am glad I did so. Immediately upon finishing I had to go Google Howard Dully & find out more.

Really, the "lobotomy" part of this memoir is minimal. This is more a story of a boy who grew up under unfortunate family circumstances, whose mother died at a young age, whose father didn't know how to express love, and whose stepmother really took control of his young life & molded it into something it shouldn't have been. The effects of the lobotomy itself are questionable in Howard Dully's life -- overall, I think he was very lucky to turn out as well as he did. This is more a story of an individual struggling to survive a tough life, & searching to find himself amidst a life of chaos. There's no doubt Howard was a troubled young man & made some bad decisions on his own, but I think it's also evident that he was initially a victim & this affected him to a great extent. I think the written story as a whole could have perhaps been organized a little better. I felt there was some unnecessary repetition and also some unnecessary detail, but on the whole, it was very informative and will likely stick with me for some time.

Placing into booklady331's audio box.

Taking this out of booklady311's Audio Bookbox. Thank you!

I wasn't planning on taking this book, as I don't read many memoirs. But I was putting in a lot of books with high disc count, so I'm taking this to even things out a little. And I think it could be interesting. Emotional, probably, but interesting :-)

Call me naive, but going into this, the only things I thought I knew about lobotomies were:
1. They are a crazy procedure used a long time ago but no longer
2. Doctors drilled a hole in the patient's skull and extracted part of the brain

Turns out neither of those is exactly right. I had no idea that doctors actually stuck tools (or friggin ICE PICKS) into people's eye sockets, blindly swirled the tools around for 10 minutes, and then pulled them out again along with anything that came with. EWWWW. I don't understand how ANYONE could think this would work as a CONSISTENT medical procedure. Sure it's possible that doing that might have touched/scrambled something enough to make it work. But it's just as likely that doing that would have made something not work. I also don't understand how anyone, practiced or not in this, could think of doing this to a 12-year-old child acting (as far as we can tell from this one-sided story) like most 12-year-old boys.

I don't read a lot of memoirs, and while earreading this I felt that maybe I shouldn't have been reading this one. Seeing what parents do to their children really makes me lose all faith in humanity.

Still, Howard does a good job of communicating what his life was like and how having a lobotomy changed his life completely. What was wrong with him? Why did they do a lobotomy on him? As far as I could figure out, the reason was that his step mother was absolutely crazy and thought he was the root of all her problems. Reminded me a LOT of the mother in A Child Called It.

After the operation, he didn't seem to change all that much, so he was sent away to live in state facilities and mental hospitals for the rest of his childhood. He was never valued by anyone, least of all his family, and never taught that he could do something with his life. So, obviously, he didn't. It took a long time for him to realize what he could do (eventually he did go to school, did have children and a stable relationship, and did get a job he liked and could do).

Then he was approached by some people wanting to do a radio documentary on the doctor who performed Howard's lobotomy. Once the ball was rolling, the documentary then became about him. He was able to talk with others who had had similar experiences or were involved somehow, able to see his medical records (which was pretty much unheard of), able to finally talk about what had happened to him.

There was a fair bit of repetition throughout. I felt like things were being restated in case *I* couldn't remember what had gone on earlier in the book, and that was silly. Also, because this was the audio version of the book, I would have LOVED to have actually been able to hear the radio broadcast instead of the narrator saying word-for-word what was in the radio broadcast. That would have made more sense to me than listening to the narrator tell about the interviews when they were conducted and then listening to the narrator quote those same interviews all over again when the documentary was aired. *shrug*

Overall, it was a good book, but highly depressing. I probably would have liked it more if I'd read it, as I wasn't overly fond of the narrator (it's WEIRD to me to have some random person read a memoir, not the author himself, especially when the author apparently has a great radio voice). I was shocked and horrified many times, I was sad and sympathetic as well. There wasn't a lot to cling to in the story; many times I just wanted it to be done so the pain could end. But it did end on a somewhat high note.

Putting in booklady311's audio bookbox.

Enjoy!

So sorry I didn't journal this sooner. I planned to journal the stack of audio books I selected from the box, but somehow my muddled brain thought I journalled them already...
I love memoirs and love medical-related popular science, so this one is totally my cup of tea. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder how much of Howard's life is affected by the lobotomy. It would be impossible to know, but I think the more important factor is his parent's attitude: his father's indifference and his stepmother's malicious dislike. There are many teens who are delinquent and many adults in messed-up life without a lobotomy performed. When he says things like giving kids they don't like a "blanket party", throwing a blanket over the kid and punching him, and in the next line says "we did not hurt anybody", or says that schools have "stupid rules like having to arrive to classes on time", or that when authorities found out that 30 out of the 32 teenage girls at the group home were pregnant, he wonders "how did we miss those two", you feel that he's not quite the plain normal kid that he claims he is, and how Lu could feel that he was a threat.

All said, I am happy that he found some form of closure after talking to his father and other patients, and that he is living a clean, normal life. The part where he interviewed his father touched me the hardest... almost like the man was intentionally delusional as to free himself from any guilt or hurt.

Found this on NPR which gave me a bit more info:
http://www.npr.org/2005/11/16/5014080/my-lobotomy-howard-dullys-journey

Sending to imawinn2 who selected it from the vbb.

I got back from vacation and found this audiobook in my stash of mail. Thankyou so much for sharing and sending it my way.

After listening to this audiobook, I was glad I had picked it off the VBB list. I, of course, heard of lobotomys but the only account I really ever heard or read much about was the tragic one performed on Rosemary Kennedy (Pres. Kennedy's sister). Miss Kennedy, btw, was then put in a home, located on the on the grounds of St. Coletta's, in my home state of Wisconsin. Anyway, I was interested in hearing another person's lobotomy experience. It is a horrifying procedure, to be sure. I found myself wrapped up in Howard Dully's interesting and sad story. I won't go into much detail as others, who have listened to this before me, have shared quite a few of their thoughts which were similar to mine. All in all, it was worth the time to take in Mr Dully's memoir. The listener will be sure to have some emotional reactions to his life experiences before and after his lobotomy.

Releasing this audiobook into HI77’s Audiobook Box. Happy Travels!

Taking from the audio bookbox.
Simply can't resist that title or the subject matter.

A very sad tale of an unwanted little boy who gets put through hell by his evil step-monster.

Put in bookbox.

This book came back to me in the recent round of HI77’s Audio Bookbox. Thank you for playing!

Donated to Dreambooks.