{"id":47233,"date":"2020-08-19T11:12:19","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T15:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=47233"},"modified":"2020-08-18T13:34:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T17:34:32","slug":"inferno-a-memoir-of-motherhood-and-madness-by-catherine-cho-in-shelf-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/inferno-a-memoir-of-motherhood-and-madness-by-catherine-cho-in-shelf-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho [in Shelf Awareness]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"*STARRED REVIEW<\/strong>
\nUltimately, Inferno\u00a0<\/em>is a love story: raw, unfiltered, wrenching, lifesaving. Catherine Cho, a Korean American literary agent living in London, makes her debut with a scorching memoir about the postpartum psychosis that nearly destroyed her \u2013 but didn’t.<\/p>\n

On November 4, 2017, Cho and husband, James, welcomed their son, Cato, into the world. Just before the year ended, the trio flew to the U.S. from London, with plans to introduce Cato to extended family and friends across the country. Their visit would culminate in New Jersey in February with James’s parents for Cato’s 100-Day celebration, a traditional Korean milestone to mark a baby’s survival. Eight days before, Cho breaks: Cato’s “eyes turned to devils’ eyes,” and Cho spirals into psychosis. Involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward, Cho spent 12 days locked away. She manages to hold on to her family with a “a folded piece of paper where [she’s] written her truths in purple marker” \u2013 including “I am alive. Real … My husband and son are waiting for me. Real.” She remains tenuously tethered to that reality with a notebook \u2013 “I recognized it as one of my husband’s treasured ones” \u2013 in which she manages to record her ordeal.<\/p>\n

“It’s difficult to know where the story of psychosis begins,” Cho writes. She challenges her past: her dysfunctional upbringing with immigrant parents, her “foxhole buddies”-connection with her younger brother, her horrific abuse by an ex-partner. She investigates her present: her complicated relationship with her in-laws, and her love-at-first-conversation bond with her husband. She doubts, pretends, hopes for the future: a reunion with her son. Her recovery will prove to be an electrifying return from hell.<\/p>\n

Discover<\/strong>: Literary agent Catherine Cho’s spectacular memoir reveals her postpartum psychosis that almost destroyed her \u2013 but didn’t.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: Biography & Memoir, Shelf Awareness<\/em>, August 18, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*STARRED REVIEW Ultimately, Inferno\u00a0is a love story: raw, unfiltered, wrenching, lifesaving. Catherine Cho, a Korean American literary agent living in London, makes her debut with a scorching memoir about the postpartum psychosis that nearly destroyed her \u2013 but didn’t. On November 4, 2017, Cho and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,38,107,20,6535],"tags":[6608,9245,10,51,25,9244,13,7292,39,6872],"class_list":["post-47233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-korean-american","category-memoir","category-nonfiction","category-repost","tag-bookdragon","tag-catherine-cho","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-inferno","tag-love","tag-mental-illness","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-shelf-awareness"],"yoast_head":"\nInferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/inferno-a-memoir-of-motherhood-and-madness-by-catherine-cho-in-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW Ultimately, Inferno\u00a0is a love story: raw, unfiltered, wrenching, lifesaving. Catherine Cho, a Korean American literary agent living in London, makes her debut with a scorching memoir about the postpartum psychosis that nearly destroyed her \u2013 but didn’t. 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