Hidden Valley Road By Robert Kolker — Review

A biography of a post-WWII American family with 12 children — 10 of them were boys, 6 of whom developed schizophrenia.

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The Second World War had ended and, buoyed by ‘limitless hope and confidence’, Don and Mimi Galvin dedicated themselves to achieving their idea of the American dream: a happy marriage, a large happy family and a happy life. In their mad pursuit of reproductive success, they had 12 children, 10 boys and 2 girls, between 1945 and 1965.

Their happiness was short-lived, however, when the oldest boy began to show bizarre behaviors, then the next oldest one began to act weird, and on down the line, until six of the ten boys were behaving strangely. Each son had his own particular demeanour, but each was becoming ever more … peculiar. They were diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental illness with an average age of onset in the late teens and early 20s, so these boys — young men, actually — were getting ready to make their way in the world when they fell ill. But schizophrenia was poorly understood then — it still is, in fact — so most people think it manifests as “multiple personalities”. But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

“Schizophrenia is not about multiple personalities. It is about walling oneself off from…