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What is mental illness, and what causes it? Can it be mere stress? Recreational drug use? A cheating girlfriend? A vitamin imbalance?

Mark Vonnegut proposed all these possibilities in his 1975 bestseller “The Eden Express.” A memoir of counter-culture, coming of age, and living with schizophrenia, The New York Times said it was "required reading for those who want to understand insanity from the inside."

Chapter One

 A Brief Family History

It's good to have a sixth gear, but watch out for

the seventh one. If you think too well outside the box,

you might find yourself in a little room without much in it.

The arts are not extracurricular.

One hundred thirty-nine years ago, my great-grandfather Bernard Vonnegut, fifteen years old, described as less physically robust than his two older brothers, probably asthmatic, started crying while doing inventory at the family hardware store. When his parents asked what was wrong, he said he didn't know but he thought he wanted to be an artist.

"I don't want to sell nails," he sobbed.

Maybe his parents should have beaten him for being ungrateful, but they wanted their son to be happy and the business was successful enough that they could hire someone else to do inventory. He became an apprentice stonecutter and then went to Europe to study art and architecture. He designed many buildings in Indianapolis that still stand today. He drew beautifully, made sculptures and furniture. He was also happily married and had three children, one of whom was Kurt senior, my grandfather, who was known as "Doc" and who also became an architect. Doc could also draw and paint and make furniture. He made wonderful chessboards, one of which he gave to me when I was nine.

When he was sixty, Doc was pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign. The cop was astonished to notice that his driver's license had expired twenty years earlier.

"So shoot me," said Doc.

Event: Mark Vonnegut will be speaking and signing books
Tuesday, April 1 at 7 pm
Tribeca Barnes ...