The Soloist by Steve Lopez

Since we're going to discuss The Lives They Left Behind tomorrow, I thought I'd quickly post about a semi-related book that I'm currently reading - The Soloist, by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez.  If the name sounds familiar, it's probably because a movie based on the book (and true story) came out recently starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx (I haven't seen it yet but heard that it's decent).

While I found The Lives They Left Behind interesting, I found myself wishing that it made more of an attempt to dig into the minds of the Willard patients and spent less time commenting on the flaws of the mental hospital system.  The Soloist is, to a large extent, what I wished the Penney / Stastny book was - a thorough exploration into the world of the mentally ill.

While the movie trailer makes the soloist out to be about a talented but homeless musician living on the streets of L.A., the book is much more about mental illness and it's frequent ties to creative genius.  The book has given me the insight into the lives of America's oft forgotten population of mentally ill people roaming the streets of our cities that I was hoping to get out of this month's read, and I would definitely recommend it.  I'm also going to try to see the movie at some point (probably when it comes out on DVD at this point) if anyone hasn't seen it and is interested.

MTW