Lithium Jesus: A Memoir of Mania [Paperback]

Charles Monroe-Kane is a natural raconteur, and boy, does he have stories to tell. Born into an eccentric Ohio clan of modern hunter-gatherers, he grew up hearing voices in his head. Over a dizzying two decades, he was many things—teenage faith healer, world traveler, smuggler, liberation theologian, ladder-maker, squatter, halibut hanger, grifter, environmental warrior, and circus manager—all the while wrestling with schizophrenia and self-medication.
From Baby Doc’s Haiti to the Czech Velvet Revolution, and from sex, drugs, and a stabbing to public humiliation by the leader of the free world, Monroe-Kane burns through his twenties and several bridges of youthful idealism before finally saying: enough.
In a memoir that blends engaging charm with unflinching frankness, Monroe-Kane gives his testimony of mental illness, drug abuse, faith, and love. By the end ofLithium Jesusthere may be a voice in your head, too, saying “Do more, be more, live more. And fear less.”

Charles Monroe-Kane grew up hearing voices in his head. Over a dizzying two decades, he became a teenage faith healer, world traveler, smuggler, halibut hanger, environmental warrior, and circus manager—all the while wrestling with schizophrenia and self-medication. In a memoir that blends humor and engaging charm with unflinching frankness, Monroe-Kane gives his testimony of mental illness, drug abuse, faith, and love.

“For all the voices that once raged through his head, Charles Monroe-Kane has finally found the true one: his own. With plainspoken honesty, he takes us through his raucous mission to devour a world before it devoured him, arriving finally at the hard truth of salvation.”—David Giffels, author ofThe Hard Way on Purpose

“This humble, funny, raw (yes, sex) book is a pell-mell kaleidoscope of faith, drugs, bawdy behavior, and mental illness that resolves not in soft focus or sl³R