Left Behind in Telluride
Abstract
Memory loss...Brain damage...Impaired adrenal glands...Life-saving? Michelle Primeau's memoir, Left Behind in Telluride , follows the struggles of a young woman, who, at the age of 19 and recently diagnosed as bipolar, hitchhikes across the country after her road-trip during summer break from college leads into a drug-addled, 5,000-mile blur of on-ramps, Greyhound buses, U-Hauls, and trailer homes. Along the way, she wrestles with the jagged edges of her childhood memories, populated by a roster of delinquent children, molesters, drunken adults, and an irresponsible and egotistical father. She becomes a snowboarding bum and joins another college drop-out in stalking David Foster Wallace and eventually finds herself pregnant in the backwoods of upper Michigan. After having the baby and enduring a series of shock treatments ordered by a judge with the collusion of her mother, Michelle learns to have the will to live, marry in India, love, and survive as she must teach her two sons how to do the same. ^
Subject Area
Health Sciences, Mental Health|Women's Studies|Literature, American
Recommended Citation
Michelle Lee Primeau,
"Left Behind in Telluride"
(January 1, 2011).
ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso.
Paper AAI1503743.
http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1503743