NOTES ON A BANANA A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression

Author David Leite narrates this idiosyncratic and sometimes infuriating audiobook about his experiences growing up, falling in love, and finding his niche in work. An award-winning food writer and early podcaster, he reads his story in a kind of self-indulgent, sometimes self-satisfied, manner that somehow exorcises his battle with what he describes as Bipolar 2. His life has been a series of challenges marked by manic highs and lows. The memoir traces Leite's struggles to earn a degree and accept being gay, and, most importantly, to understand his illness. Much is left to the listener to parse as he both reveals and conceals. It's clear that the lived experience of mental illness is exceptionally difficult to share in an audiobook or on the page. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2017]