When the Music's Over.

An intimate journey inside the schizophrenic mind presents selections from the journal of a schizophrenia sufferer, written while he spent time in mental hospitals, in jail, and while functioning in ""normal"" society.

Burke, a young Australian who committed suicide in 1985, describes himself as "a drug-induced alcoholic psychopathic paranoid schizophrenic with manic depression." He left a note asking his former teacher, neuropsychologist Richard Gates, to publish his manuscript. That impossible-to-follow (much less fathom) book appears here. It reads like a twisted but ever-so-hip William Burroughs hoping to impress Aldous Huxley and R. D. Laing with the severity of his psychosis. In fact, Burke's "autobiographical novel" is approachable only with the help of the abundant footnotes and explanatory preface and afterword. The editors lead the reader through Burke's childhood and teen years, his use of psychedelic drugs, and his incarcerations and hospitalizations. They also annotate many of the bewildering passages in the book: the birth of Burke's child, which he thought was responsible for a cyclone that devastated a nearby city, or his robbery of a bank, after which he tossed the money out the getaway car's window as evidence that he was God and "the inventor of rock and roll." This painful but illuminating text will prove fascinating to anyone seeking to understand the strange malady that is schizophrenia. Ron Antonucci

In this autobiographical "novel," Burke reveals his world as a paranoid schizophrenic in intimate detail. He is the third of four sons born in Australia in the 1950s, and his early family life proved uneventful. After a short employment career, his mental instability surfaced. He sank into a delusional life of drugs, sex, and rock'n'roll and proceeded to enter and leave mental hospitals over a period of years. At the end, we learn that Burke committed suicide shortly after the completion of this book in 1985. Edited by Burke's neuropsychologist and teacher, Gates, the book opens with an introduction that prepares the reader for the roller-coaster ride of emotions to come. The book ends with a very concise description of schizophrenia and its subtypes, as well as a list of references for further reading. Ultimately a book for lay readers, this is an adequate, though not necessary, addition to public and academic libraries.
Lisa Wise, Univ. of Southern Colorado, Pueblo
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.