As I reflect on this book, a thought welcomes itself into the menagerie of thoughts already bundled in my mind. It comes to me that a book cover never resonated more with the secrets it keeps within its pages as much as this dark satirical masterpiece. What captivated me the first time that I laid my eyes on Bedlam: The Life & Mind of Earl Sedgwick, by Bobby Spears, Jr., was the dark realism and struggle of dependency by the main character–Earl Sedgwick–which is hinted at by the title. All of us readers know that if a book title has the word “Life” in it, then something significant yet tragic must have happened and to such an extent that the author decided to put it into words for all to read; most importantly, the author documented such an experience so that we, as the audience, can feel, sympathize, learn, and possibly relate.
Bobby Spears Jr. introduces us to Earl Sedgwick and his life, an unfortunately depressing reality of an asylum owner who himself becomes a victim of the craziness and hysteria present in the consecutiveness of dull and gloomy days. Within each chapter, these dull and gloomy days become a reality as we walk in Sedgwick’s shoes and live each day as though we want the days to end and our last day to finally make its grand appearance. With balancing his work life, deteriorating family life, and a hardcore drug addiction, Sedgwick slowly loses the bit of humanity he has left, for the precariousness of his reality does not show any mercy on his living yet lifeless soul.
Growing up in poverty, Sedgwick’s parents eventually achieve their dreams of opening an asylum, becoming the family business and ticket to success and abundance. The financial abundance that comes to Earl and his parents may be fulfilling but deprives Earl of his childhood. Regardless, Earl takes over the business so that his parents’ successful reality may live on.
Surrounded by the genuine happiness and success of his friends, Earl’s misery is triggered as he witnesses insanity and death on a daily basis from individuals who deserve none of the suffering fate has put them through. The asylum being all Sedgwick has ever known, he yearns for something new, but cannot trade the misery for happiness because of the crippling health and familial state he has put himself in. With sobriety and familial communication being his only ways out, he painfully forces himself to change for the better.
The beauty of Earl’s story is its dark realism. Even though Earl lives an emotionally treacherous life, and struggles on a daily basis, his story is not glamorized. Earl is not seen as a hero and is not praised for “pushing through.” Spears Jr. develops an environment in which the harshness of reality shows itself indirectly to the reader, even if it is through words. Because we, as players in this game of life, are oblivious to the perspectives others might have of us and are accustomed to overcoming obstacles, Sedgwick allows us to view the harshness of life with deeper meaning. The meaning of individualism deepens as we come to terms with the fact that the inevitable has a chance of being cruel as much as it has a chance of being prosperous and abundant.
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