Jennifer Frayer-Griggs wrote a great feature in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bipolar Faith is graceful and heartbreaking
“You can die of grief.” This is the first sentence of the Rev. Monica A. Coleman’s memoir, “Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey With Depression and Faith.” And with that first sentence, Ms. Coleman knits together her experiences of family history, the legacy of the horrors of slavery and the Jim Crow South, and the thread of emotional brokenness that has been woven through her entire family, seen most clearly through the suicide of her great-grandfather.
Through her graceful and heartbreaking descriptions of broken relationships, healing relationships, depression and trauma, Ms. Coleman tells the stories of her life to show that there is no cheap fix or an easy solution, but leads us through a complex discovery of hope in the pain, healing through the heartache, and strength in vulnerability.
