This quick read has heart and comedy, and a satisfying ending. The relationship between the characters and Perry is fun, but there could have been more exploration of the "invisible friends." Nonetheless, the author provided enough detail for a non-fiction book.

As a child growing up with a parent that had undiagnosed mental illness, this book was something unanticipated for me. I never got an opportunity to make right with my parent like this author is trying to (or rather- just doing) so it was a harder read for me.

This Memoir was exactly as its described. It's both hilarious and sad and thoroughly entertaining. It's a quick read and I couldn't put it down once I started.

As we go through the story, we experience Dan's worry as his mother has episodes of falling. Going to appointments as they try to understand why it is happening and hearing Perry talk about all the other things that are happening to her as she describes her experience to her doctors.

Life is not always easy for Dan and Perry, but they have some amazing people around to help them through as well as Perry's fantastic sense of humor. They always find a way to get through the hard times and have fun wile navigating the sad reality of Perry's illness.

This story reminds me a lot of the movie Running With Scisors, different but similarly quirky. I highly reccomend this story to anyone who wants a quick yet different and true read.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I started this book, but could not get into it. It sounds like a story that would be right up my alley, so I am disappointed that it didn't work out. I'm sure others will enjoy it!

Honest and endearing, this book hit fairly close to home as the daughter-in-law of a schizo-affective mother who laughed and loved big and suffered from debilitating delusions. I wish we had been able to read a book like this when we walked thru a somewhat similar path. Matthews tells the story with grace, honoring his mother, while still being authentic to the confusion, frustration, and weariness that caring for a mentally ill, aging parent carries.

Like Crazy Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends By Dan Mathews

I loved this book and I knew I would, right away! Simply by reading the publishers summary. If you’ve read the summary and believe you will enjoy this book, go ahead and buy it because you may want to read it more than once.

The great thing about this book? It such a timely book! It has so much positive energy and in 2020 (pandemic & election year) there is a sore lacking of it. Like Crazy...is filled with love, family, friendships, people helping people & people actually accepting the assistance of others, and so much resilience. By the time I was done with the book, it occurred to me that Dan Mathews must be an excellent judge of character because he sure has assembled a wonderful, loving support group.

Dan Mathews, author, has agreed to buy a run down Victorian home and have his ill mother flown across the country to live with him. He is single, he travels frequently for work, he has never owned a house and he’s struggling with maintenance. His mother Perry arrives, loves the house right away and decides to stay. This begins a new chapter in each of their lives. Perry is an elderly single mother and undiagnosed schizophrenic... Just take a moment and think what life for her must have been to successfully hide, disguise, camouflage such an illness her whole life? What about being a child of hers? Its amazing, really. That’s why I love this book! Dan, Perry, and the people around them persevere, remain humble & kind, they focus on the positive without fail. I’m sure there are plenty of difficult times that could’ve been focused on, but not in this book. This book is a joy to read because it is not a I’m-a-mess-&-it’s-my-mother’s-fault book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. Published May 2020.

This book was darker than I expected it to be. Although considering it deals with a schizophrenic parent, I'm not sure why I was so surprised. This book will be a great to sell along side Another Bull**** Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn, Agorafabulous by Sara Benincasa or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

"As an atheist in southern Virginia...I do not believe in gods above and devils below, [but] I do honor the instinct inside that tells you the right thing to do. That's why I decided to buy a house and move in my ill, unhinged mother." Dan Mathews, a senior v-p at PETA and the unattached "happy-go-lucky homosexual" in his family, felt it his duty to take in his 78-year-old mother, Perry. The "deviant son was stuck with the crazy mother," like Norman Bates in Psycho, and Perry's final years would test their limits and cement their bond.

Perry had always been different. Her children previously chalked up her paranoid or delusional conduct to the tormented childhood she rarely talked about. Living together, Mathews senses things are seriously amiss. Their hilarious but often fraught-with-danger existence shatters when Perry seems to break, and Mathews frantically tries to get her help in a system not known for its user-friendliness or navigational ease.

In Like Crazy, Mathews (Committed) memorializes his mother's life with the bawdy and raucous tale of their relationship and the merry band of misfits they attract. Side-splitting laughter turns deadly serious as things take a horrific turn, but Mathews is a force to be reckoned with and the final descent is endearingly lovely. Mathews is so funny (lamenting he can't set his mother adrift on an ice floe, "another tradition ruined by global warming") it's easy to overlook his storytelling talents until things get gritty and humor is stripped away. Like Crazy is an utter gem.

I have not laughed this hard in...I can't remember when. This was definitely the book I needed in times of little to laugh about.

Tender, witty and a true testament to the power of love.

When she was 79 Dan's mother was diagnosed with COPD and wasn't well enough to live on her own. With a great deal of trepidation, he brought her to live with him in Virginia. He was an unattached queer man, who worked for PETA. His queerness was something his mother accepted wholeheartedly. She became great friends with many if his past partners and they enjoyed her outlandish personality. She of course had other issues.

She often held conversations with people that weren't present. She did though have an enviable zest for life, she was fun, sometimes outrageous, had her very own quirks and quibbles and people enjoyed being with and talking to her. This is the journey of a mother and son who become closer as they acclimate to living together.

Her illness wouldn't be diagnosed until almost the end of her life
and then it is apparent just how strong this woman has been throughout her life. Both mother and son, in my book, are thoroughly admirable people. Humorous despite it's dark patches, I very much enjoyed this read.

ARC from Netgalley.

Dan Mathews is an honest and very likeable human being.
In ‘Like Crazy’ we follow his awakening and frustrations of family responsibility as he moves his 79 year dilapidated old mother and her two dilapidated cats into his dilapidated Victorian house in Portsmouth Virginia.
The juxtaposition between the end of his footloose free bachelor days, juggling his career as a PETA animal activist and trying to get proper diagnosis and treatment for his eccentric mother is certainly interesting and compelling reading.
We feel his exhaustion, stress and frustration trying to manage his mother Perry’s antics and condition after his demanding days at working at PETA.
Thankfully Perry is a generally a very social person, and all around her are warm and supportive friends and family.
Dan also introduces some interesting characters along the way, and everyone is included into their lives.
Especially when there is a costume party!
Dan’s emotions are torn between the mother he sort of thought he knew, and the real Perry who as it turns out has developed some serious mental health issues.
There is no hiding from each other anymore in that lovely old house.
Dan has to reverse the parent / child caring relationship and make some hard decisions.
I loved that this was written with love, warmth and humour as well as respect for his ageing mother.
I did laugh when Dan and his partner decide to become human guinea pigs and test all Perry’s random medications on themselves.
Dan’s style, wit and pace reminded me very much of David Sedaris writing style.
Fun to read and hard to put down.
I could really relate to this book having lived and cared for my own parents for 10 years plus.
Different scenario but I know how it feels when you buy into the shared house arrangement believing it’ll all be a breeze, and despite all best efforts everything turns into a hot mess of zero privacy, and unexpected demands.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for forwarding this great book to me in exchange for an honest review.

I volunteered to read this book, through netgalley in exchange, for an honest review. This book is well written. I like how Dan helps take care of his mom. This book is in stores now for $36.00 (CAD). I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It has mental health representation. I can't wait to read more books by this author in the future.

Honestly could not get past the first few pages - I did not like the author's writing style and tone.

“Like Crazy: Life With My Mother and Her Invisible Friends” (2020) is a delightfully fun and extraordinary memoir written by a extremely gifted storyteller Dan Matthews. In 2008, Matthew’s elderly mother arrived to permanently live with him at his newly purchased ramshackle Victorian Home, in Portsmouth, Virginia. “Perry” (she often went by various names) was accompanied on the flight by Dan’s adoring former boyfriend before returning to California. Perry had been looked after there by her sons, and a host of concerned friends. Dan realized it was his turn to care for their mother-- his carefree days and nights of bachelorhood were over.

Dan worked for the non-profit, PETA, as an organizer and animal rights activist. Perry’s two cats fit right in, though they usually stayed in her room under her bed. It became a challenge to have the TV blearing at all hours, Perry was nearly deaf. They watched the subtitles, and improved in speed reading. Perry was impressed with the picturesque snowy scenes from their tall oversize windows. When it warmed up, Perry often visited her favorite haunt, the public library and soon had a following of assorted friends that stopped by to visit her. Perry loved meeting new people especially his new lovers, and insisted he meet someone who had the skills to help with home improvements and fix her outdated computer.

When Perry started burning candles as a memorial to family and friends who had supposedly passed away, and talking to people who weren’t there—Dan knew it would be necessary to have Perry evaluated and hospitalized. This is would be extremely difficult. Next he discovered that his mother’s zany and oversized personality was a result of undiagnosed schizophrenia. Perry refused medication, and would need scheduled visits to be injected by a visiting nurse. The change in Perry’s condition was noticeable and she enjoyed improved health. By this time, Dan was in a committed relationship and new generation of family members were added to their clan, Perry couldn’t have been happier! This is an uplifting memoir that compares to “Bettyville” (2015)—of love, caring and family life readers will not want to miss. **Special thanks to Simon and Schuster via NetGalley for the DDC for the purpose of review.

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A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir about an outlandish mother and son on an odyssey of self-discovery, and the rag-tag community that rallied to help them as the mother entered the final phase of her life.
.It’s a good howl & a potent silver bullet for our cruel, craven & callous times.

I laughed and cried, and often at the same time. I highly recommend this book for perfect summer reading. Buy it today!

This was an amazing and quick read. As a VA native it was good reading a fellow Virginian and their experience with mental health problems (in this case his mother). It was filled with humor but still resonated with just enough sadness to make you feel for him and his mom’s battle

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Wowwww this was so good. A beautiful memoir about a son taking care of his elderly and mentally ill mother that was somehow both heart wrenching and hilarious. He made Virginia sound almost idyllic, and the way he described he and his mother’s escapades really made me smile. I bet his mom would have loved reading this. Highly recommend but be prepared for some tears.

This was such a sweet, heart-felt tribute to Dan Mathews' mother. She seemed wonderful, one of a kind. His relationship to Jack was also very moving to read, in the way that the two men just found each other, no drama, no games... just two adults falling in lo.ve. That's truly what this book is about, love. Romantic or not, from a mother and son relationship, to a gay romantic relationship, down to the chance encounters in Missouri and all of the friends and family who drop everything to be of help. Dan and Jack seem to have created a beautiful life for themselves with a wide array of chosen family. May we all be so lucky. xo

This was an interesting read of the elderly years of a woman with schizophrenia as told by her son/caretaker.