Where is the Mango Princess? A Journey Back from Brain Injury

Very well-written account of the author's first year as caregiver to her brain-damaged husband. However, perhaps it's my background working in the civil court system, but I had a hard time accepting Crimmins' implication that there wasn't money for medical treatment aside from what their HMO would authorize. Granted she wasn't present at the accident, but beyond stating that "a woman driving a boat hit him", there's no further mention of the circumstances thereafter by her ... with one exception: she finds the claims adjuster for the woman's insurance company in Alan's hospital room shortly after the accident, and throws him out immediately. That said to me that there was a settlement, if not litigation (she does mention threatening to show more sue the HMO at one point), involved which she cannot discuss; presumably, there's treatment money forthcoming which she downplays here. The way she handles that aspect I found clumsily disingenuous; she's explicit - to the point of TMI for me at times - with the rest of the details. show less

A gut-wrenching story of one family's experience with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Mango princess is written by the patient, Alan's, wife, and she's obviously a gifted writer who's also blessed with a sense of humor, as there are jokes and dark humor sprinkled throughout... Wait did I say sprinkled? I meant dumped. This book will make you laugh and cry... but mostly laugh, because she-Cathy-uses humor to cope with the worst of TBI, even as she looks it straight in the face and then turns around to tell you, the reader, what it's all about. She educated me on brain injury in just under a day (the time it took me to finish the book), and, on top of that, I laughed the whole way.

A very highly recommended read!!

Excellent book on brain injury. Well written, and story told from the wife's perspective Mar 08