The Broken Places

“The Broken Places” is a searingly honest, revealing memoir in which McBride recalls his breakdown in his youth and how he was healed through his romance with a troubled young woman he met in a mental hospital. This book is a moving love story and a probing portrait of how mental illness was regarded and poorly diagnosed in the 1960s. It also shows how, in those years just before the sexual revolution, a young man dealt with the problems of sexual repression due to his Catholic upbringing, including psychological and physical abuse in Catholic schools, as well as with problems caused by his dysfunctional family life with alcoholic parents. “The Broken Places” is a powerful account of trauma and healing.