More Or Less Maddy

 I am a big fan of the writing of Dr. Lisa Genova. She takes case histories from her patients and crafts them into a fictional story much like Maddy in the book about bipolar disorder called More Or Less Maddy. Maddy is a college student living on her on for the first in New York City. She grew up in Connecticut with her older sister, brother, mother and step-father. She has trouble keeping up in college and goes to the student health center to get a pass for taking exams later. The physician writes her a script for an anti-depressant. Taking the medicine culminates in a period of manic behavior where she believes she will help Taylor Swift write her autobiography. Although her mother never said, her father had bi-polar disorder too and that is why her mother left him. Over the next few years Maddy struggles to accept her diagnosis. Her mother tries too hard to control the disease which only makes things worse. I enjoyed reading about Maddy. Her older sister's character feels undeveloped and  trite. I suppose a doctor would focus on the illness rather than the people without illness.