The Day the Voices Stopped

April 23, 2001
From the age of 14, mental health advocate Steele battled the ruthless barrage of voices and hallucinations of schizophrenia. His arduous 32-year struggle is chronicled in this memoir, written with journalist Berman (What Am I Doing in a Step-Family?). Despite his parents' initial reluctance to admit the seriousness of his disorder, Steele, who died last year of heart failure, understood early on that his condition was pushing him ever closer to suicide. Only reading and writing provided him a haven, offering him flights of imagination that temporarily quieted the voices. Instead of seeking proper treatment, his family allowed him to drop out of school and stay idle at home, where he only got sicker. He tried to move to New York from Connecticut; to attend theater school, only to end up in a mental ward, the first of several hospitalizations. Steele then descended into alcoholism, homelessness and exploitation by male hustlers. After AA meetings, drugs, shock treatments and repeated hospitalizations, he eventually triumphed over the illness to fashion a new life. Many readers will be emotionally drained by the time he becomes a nationally recognized spokesman for the rights of the mentally ill and the publisher of New York City Voices,
a publication heralding that cause. Steele's sobering yet resonant and inspiring narrative refuses to sugarcoat the tremendous force of this disorder and its stubborn resistance to recovery. (May) Forecast: Advertising in the
New York Times,
San Francisco Chronicle and
Los Angeles Times should help this book find its audience—schizophrenics and their families, policy makers, mental health professionals and anyone who cares about the mentally ill.

Starred review from May 15, 2001
In 1995, Steele, a schizophrenic, began taking a new antipsychotic medication. Suddenly, the voices that had tormented him for 32 years were silenced. In this posthumous memoir (Steele died of heart failure last year), he describes the paranoia and delusions that afflicted him as he wandered across the United States. He also chronicles his post-medication triumphs: after reading a politician's letter about how the mentally ill don't vote, Steele went on to become a leading activist for the mentally ill, organizing a voter registration campaign in halfway houses and treatment centers. As publisher of New York City Voices: A Consumer Journal for Mental Health Advocacy, Steele encouraged those with mental illnesses to share their stories, and some of these personal accounts are included in the book's final section. Through Steele's eyes, readers see the changes in psychiatric treatment from incarceration in mental asylums to integration into the community made possible by a support network of halfway houses, club houses, clinics, and advocacy programs. In an afterword, Steele discusses recent changes in mental health policy and treatment and outlines future needs if the mentally ill are to become fully functioning members of society. This remarkable, well-written, and inspiring memoir is recommended for all collections. Lucille Boone, San Jose P.L., CA

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2001
Steele died at 51, just after completing this highly personal but clear-headed account of his life as a schizophrenic. His parents' denial of his illness, which struck suddenly when he was 14, hampered them and him in seeking help and in understanding the dangers his condition might entail, and thus his experience of his illness was punctuated by several suicide attempts and violent attacks. There were also a few bright spots--the occasional knowledgeable, sympathetic doctor or positive and educational hospital program--amid the despair and hopelessness that usually surrounded him. During the 32 years that interior voices overwhelmed his thoughts and actions, Steele moved back and forth across the country and in and out of hospitals and worked at odd jobs, including an unfortunate stint of prostitution. His account of the day the voices stopped will surely remain with everyone who reads it, and the whole book should inform and affect other victims of severe mental illness and their families.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)