Remembering Garrett: One Family's Battle with a Child's Depression - Hardcover

Smith, D.C. Gordon

3.75

65 ratings by Goodreads

9780786717620: Remembering Garrett: One Family's Battle with a Child's Depression

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786717629 ISBN 13: 9780786717620

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2006

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Oregon Senator Gordon Smith’s son, Garrett, battled learning disabilities and clinical depression for most of his life. At the age of twenty-two, while attending the University of Utah, this popular young man took his own life. As parents, Smith and his wife Sharon, who had adopted Garrett as a newborn, were heartbroken. And, as a senator, Smith was forced to question whether he had the strength or even the desire to carry on in politics.

For the first time, Smith candidly retraces his son’s life leading up to his suicide. He chronicles the crippling sadness he and his wife faced in the aftermath; and how, with the help of faith and those around him, he not only returned to politics, but became a fearless advocate of suicide prevention. His moving speech on the Senate floor upon the passage of his Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, which increases federal funding to combat the ever-growing problem of youth suicide, brought a rare moment of bipartisan support on the Senate floor and helped open a long overdue national discussion.

Remembering Garrett speaks from the heart to parents who have experienced the same tragedy, or are fighting for a child struggling with depression.

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About the Author:

Gordon Smith is currently serving his second term in the United States Senate, where he has represented his home state of Oregon since 1997. During his service in the Capitol, he has earned a reputation for independence, effectiveness, and an ability to bridge partisan differences. A graduate of Brigham Young University and Southwestern University School of Law, Smith entered politics after a successful career in the food processing industry. The death of their son, Garrett, propelled Smith and his wife Sharon to embark on a mission to improve mental health programs and to combat the epidemic of youth suicide.

From Publishers Weekly:

Senator Gordon Smith's first book tenderly describes his son Garrett's struggle with bipolar disorder and his final, desperate decision to take his own life. With moments of great honesty and pathos, Smith alternates between feelings of guilt over his long absences and the belief that Garrett's struggles were part of God's design. However, Smith's narrative includes so much back story (about his own parents, his work in the frozen foods industry and his eventual election to public office) that Garrett's story sometimes gets lost. The voices of Garrett's mother and sister are not heard until the epilogue, and those friends and family who are represented require more fleshing out. Smith's description of his mother-"a saint"-is indicative of a well-meaning but ill-advised reluctance to consider the flaws and contradictions that make his subjects human. Shoehorned bipartisan rhetoric ("pain and loss do not register as Republican or Democrat") serves to further distance Smith from the topic at hand. Other than the Senator's job title, there is not much to make this book stand out in a sadly overpopulated genre that includes books like Patty Duke's A Brilliant Madness and Kathleeen Finneran's lyrical memoir, The Tender Land.
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