Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See

October 1, 2012
In Garey’s debut novel, Greyson Todd is a high-flying movie executive who, in 1984, leaves his studio job and his wife and eight-year-old daughter, and embarks on a worldwide tour. Ten years later, he is in a New York hospital being treated for bipolar disorder—which he has struggled with for decades—and given electroshock treatment. In between, we get the story of Greyson’s conflicted marriage to Ellen, and his childhood with a failure for a father. As he travels around the world, Greyson hops from Rome to the Negev, Bangkok, Santiago, and Uganda, but his adventures seldom rise above the level of travelogue. Only when he finally lands in New York, where he settles down in Chelsea, and the author details the steps leading up to Greyson’s nervous breakdown, does the story become sufficiently dramatic. Otherwise, the achronological structure works against the narrative by not allowing the reader to chart the progress of Greyson’s mental illness. The author’s take on what it was like to be raised on the show business periphery of Beverly Hills in the late 1950s feels authentic. In the end, though, this earnest novel about depression breaks no new ground in its depiction of the subject. Agent: Paul Bresnick, the Paul Bresnick Agency.

March 25, 2013
Hollywood studio executive Greyson Todd abandons his family and struggles to overcome his bipolar disorder in Garey’s novel, which spans three timelines: Todd’s past, his present, and his father’s past. As Todd makes the journey through a series of electroshock-therapy sessions, he traces the impact of his own unraveling. Narrator Dan Butler ably portrays Todd, brilliantly expressing the thoughts and emotions of this complex character. Butler captures Todd’s troubled mental state with simple vocal fluctuations. With excellent pacing and inflection, the narrator also skillfully builds tension throughout the audiobook. But while his rendition of Todd is compelling, his performance of many of the other characters lacks vocal distinction and depth. A Soho Press hardcover.