She guards a secret. Mom is "sick in the head." In an era when speaking of mental illness was taboo, Linda learns from an early age not to talk about her mother's bizarre behavior. Now her mother's escape from a would-be killer threatens to expose the family secret.
They are not a normal family. Finally, after her mother’s extended stays in mental institutions, Linda accepts that her Mom will never be normal. That she assumes, must make her abnormal as well. She wrestles against her father’s abuse and constant shaming of her and her faith and wonders if God made a mistake. Is there a way for her to break away from the shame that holds her captive? An Illusion of Normal is the riveting and best selling memoir of the life of a child whose mother suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. “Schoonover’s harrowing remembrance is unflinching, remarkable for a level of candor that demands courage. Her sparse but moving prose tenderly portrays the terror and isolation she weathered as a child. Yet this is not a scornful lament but rather an inspiring account of personal triumph; the author writes affectingly about the love and sympathy she still has for her mother. This brief memoir is untainted by cloying self pity and full of wise counsel for others who have suffered similarly.” Kirkus Reviews
