The Eden Express
$ 4.00
Author: Mark Vonnegut
Publisher: Bantam 2755
Year: 1976 Print: 2 Cover Price: $1.95
Condition: Book Grades. Good Plus. Moderate wear
Genre: Non Fiction/Biography
Pages: 273
80126053E
The book shares Mark Vonnegut's personal journey through hippie counterculture and severe mental illness during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
- The Search for Eden: Mark graduates from college and decides to leave normal society behind. He packs up his VW bug and moves to a commune farm in British Columbia, Canada. He seeks a simple, self-sufficient life with his girlfriend and friends.
- The Descent into Illness: While living on the farm, Mark's mental health begins to slip. He suffers severe nervous breakdowns. He experiences heavy delusions, suicidal thoughts, and hallucinations.
- Hospitalization: In 1971, his friends seek help from his father. Mark is committed to a psychiatric hospital. Doctors diagnose him with paranoid schizophrenia. []
- Recovery: At the time, the counterculture movement claimed mental illness was just a myth. Mark realizes his condition is actually a biochemical sickness. Through medical treatment and time, he regains his health. He eventually goes on to graduate from Harvard Medical School and becomes a pediatrician
