My Own Ashes: A Hero’s Journey with Mental Illness and Addiction is a work about trying to live life and keeping on — being born without a handbook. The full ride, confusion, mystery, and turmoil at every corner — no end in sight. A hero, his journey, and dark nights of the soul type of writing. Strawbridge never gets to the end of his journey, and if he did, he would refuse to settle. When that journey ends, if it’s not a hammer between the eyes, it’ll still feel like it.
My Own Ashes could sit flush with addiction books or philosophy texts. It answers the question, “What if the greatest minds don’t have it figured out, either?” It depends on who you are on how scary that can be. No matter, Strawbridge’s writing here is notably elevated to a point. He uses words like an Irish musician plays a tin-penny whistle. Listen once, you’ll hear the melody. Listen again, and you’re in on a deeper secret.
The recovery book is one genre with enough authors. Yet it’s easier to read fiction, imagine worlds like our own but slightly different, have that secure, definite, and happy ending. There’s plenty of that here, too. Strawbridge uses the ideas of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey to map out his own disasters, to allow you to see through someone else’s eyes, to fear what’s coming.
Strawbridge didn’t have a difficult life. His family was of one piece and caring. His train wrecks were no worse than others. It was his mind where the darkness lurked, and it enveloped him. It was stronger than what the supposed reality of the outside world presented.
My Own Ashes takes a new, refreshing slant on recovery: harsh truths abide, yes, but so does a complete lack of grimy details. Strawbridge understands that you’ve heard the tale, seen the movie. It’s time to get to the bottom of this shit.
Find My Own Ashes: A Hero’s Journey with Mental Illness and Addiction at Huntsville Independent Press.
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