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Early Praise for To Lose the Madness
“In this spellbinding book, poet and novelist Browning spares no detail in telling the story of her descent into profound grief as one loss piled upon another. Though small, this effective and plainspoken memoir is densely packed with tales of harrowing experiences that require emotional, intellectual, and spiritual investments on the part of the reader. Browning’s journey of recovery will be of help to anyone looking for courage in difficult times.”
–Publishers Weekly
“A laconic, beautiful, and deeply insightful account about coping with loss.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Browning’s essay explores the confluence of natural and interior landscapes in a manner both beautiful and searing.”
–Foreword Reviews
“Browning brings us inside the disoriented unfolding of a life taking new shape after trauma. This is not a ‘tie a neat bow around it’ trauma and recovery story with a too-simple happy ending, but a messy, honest look at a life that will never be the same.”
–Lilly Dancyger, Deputy Editor of Narratively
“Impressively candid and articulate, extraordinarily honest and insightful, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity is an inherently compelling read from cover to cover. Thoughtful and thought-provoking from first page to last, To Lose the Madness is unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library collections.”
–Midwest Book Review, *Reviewer’s Choice
“To Lose the Madness is an essay built from the bones of the earth. Browning offers a stripped down, belly-to-the-ground, howling manifesto to authenticity, the truth that resides beneath layers of flesh and soil. It is a roadmap of hard-won scars and suffering, the kind of suffering that carves a life like glaciers carve landscapes. Where it has been, a riverbed of beauty and self-knowledge has been left.”
–Jason Kirkey, author of The Salmon in the Spring
“…This is a road trip with a friend, one who’s been there, and who knows the only way home is through.”
–James Scott Smith, author of Water, Rocks and Trees and The Expanse of All Things
“This is L.M. Browning’s most personally revealing book to date—and perhaps her best. As intensely personal as it is, it grapples with questions and struggles that are universal, questions that afflict modern humanity, questions that we really haven’t figured out at all. It is a book that offers a brief but deep glimpse at a writer’s soul, and, in doing so, a glimpse at our own.”
–Theodore Richards, award-winning author of Cosmosophia
“To Lose the Madness, teaches much about ‘trauma, loss, and radical authenticity’ with wisdom, awe, and grace. While her journey is unique, it reveals the universality of brokenness and the yearning for connection. I’m grateful for Browning’s willingness to explore her own suffering—and transcendence—so honestly and poetically; the resulting generous, sage essay is a guide for everyone.”
–Iris Graville, author of Hiking Naked
“To Lose the Madness is poignant, it is granular and gritty, it sings without avoiding the grit. From the depth of a despair often not spoken for, Browning offers her reader a compassionate voice of witnessing for herself and for anyone who has been touched by this kind of suffering. ”
–Gary Whited, award-winning author of Having Listened
To Lose the Madness
Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity
Essay and Photos
© 2018 • Text by L.M. Browning
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher.
The author has tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from her memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances she has changed the names of individuals and places, she may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.
Published in 2018 • Little Bound Books
Imprint of Homebound Publications
Front Cover Image © Lauren Mancke (Flickr)
Interior Photography © Leslie M. Browning
Cover and Interior Designed • Leslie M. Browning
Author Photo © “Mallory”
While the author would have liked to have included her own image for the cover, she was experiencing the moment and therefore had no means of documentation; however, the photos on the interior of the book are by the author and follow the course of the trip West.
Isbn • 978-1-947003-90-3 • (First Edition Trade Paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Browning, L. M., author. Title: To lose the madness : field notes on trauma, loss and radical authenticity / by L.M. Browning.
Description: First edition. | Pawcatuck, ct : Little Bound Books, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: lccn 2017055727 | isbn 9781947003903 (trade paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Browning, L. M.–Mental health. | Post-traumatic stress disorder–Patients–Biography. Classification: LCC RC552.P67 B77 2018 | DDC 616.85/210092 [B] –dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017055727
www.radicalauthenticity.community
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Dedication
For K.
And those who offered me shelter
. . . in all its forms.
~
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“The world that used to nurse us
now keeps shouting inane instructions.
That’s why I ran to the woods.”
–Jim Harrison, Songs of Unreason
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Also by the Author
Poetry
Ruminations at Twilight Oak Wise The Barren Plain Vagabonds & Sundries In the Hands of the Immortal Weaver
Fiction
The Nameless Man The Castoff Children
Nonfiction
Season of Contemplation Fleeting Moments of