My Fluorescent God

Joe Guppy’s life derailed in 1979. The 23-year-old was dealing with a bad breakup and existential angst, but it was a few stomach pills he took in Mexico that pushed him over the edge into paranoid psychosis… and straight into the mental ward of Seattle’s Providence Hospital or, as he perceived it, Hell. In the ensuing six months, he battled his real-life demons, jumped out a second-story window, and encountered God in a fluorescent light fixture. In this raw, often wryly comic memoir, Guppy invites readers into his haunted, 23-year-old head… and the experience is electrifying. Recreated from journal entries and the notes of mental-health professionals, the story of the author’s struggle to rebuild his sanity is a gripping spiritual and psychological adventure.