Commitment

Simpson (Casebook) offers a haunting story of a family in the 1970s unmoored by mental illness. Diane Aziz, a single mother of three, has held herself together for 18 years, but after dropping her eldest son Walter off at UC Berkeley, she is overwhelmed by depression. Diane signs herself into a psychiatric institution, leaving her younger children, Lina and Donnie, to deal with the fallout—lack of supervision, financial resources, and stability. Award-winning narrator Xe Sands conveys Lina’s and Donnie’s stories as they exit high school, revealing their innermost thoughts about inheriting their mother’s depression, the weight of familial duties, shame over their fraught circumstances, and hope for the future. Despite their many trials, Simpson offers a triumphant story grounded by the siblings’ deep love for one another.