Authors Spotlight with Lukas Klessig
01/27/25 • 12 min
During this mini episode we turn the Authors Spotlight onto Lukas Klessig and his book “Words With My Father: A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times”.
Words With My Father offers a gripping portrait of the evolution of a young man's mental illness and how it manifested into a dramatic and often dangerous existence through the turbulence of the Civil Rights, Peace and Conservation movements.
Lowell Klessig's posthumously-released story, infused with reflections by his son Lukas, provides an intimate window into one man's life in flux with bipolar disorder. As the author narrates a postwar upbringing and describes the manic-depressive travails of developing his identity, he offers us a view into the turmoil of the times - and of his mind.
Through mania- and danger-filled months fighting for Civil Rights, protesting the Vietnam War and furthering the Conservation Movement, we see the purpose that sustained him. Through darkened panes, we witness the isolation and malaise of depressive winters that nearly took his life. This masterful chronicle allows us to peer into a restless and kinetic existence in one moment and a chasm of fatigue and hopelessness on the next page.
It's an account that will change your perspective. It's a bipolar journey that you won't ever forget.
Discussion Points:
- Why we should read their book
- A different kind a mental health memoir
- How the book is presented
- Lukas’s fathers last wish
- Past stigma about mental health
- Civil rights movement
- Vietnam war and environmental activism
- Reach out to Lukas at [email protected]
Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted:
Book Interrupted YouTube Channel
Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group
Lukas’s website: Words With My Father
Words With My Father: A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times by Lukas Klessig and Lowell Klessig
During this mini episode we turn the Authors Spotlight onto Lukas Klessig and his book “Words With My Father: A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times”.
Words With My Father offers a gripping portrait of the evolution of a young man's mental illness and how it manifested into a dramatic and often dangerous existence through the turbulence of the Civil Rights, Peace and Conservation movements.
Lowell Klessig's posthumously-released story, infused with reflections by his son Lukas, provides an intimate window into one man's life in flux with bipolar disorder. As the author narrates a postwar upbringing and describes the manic-depressive travails of developing his identity, he offers us a view into the turmoil of the times - and of his mind.
Through mania- and danger-filled months fighting for Civil Rights, protesting the Vietnam War and furthering the Conservation Movement, we see the purpose that sustained him. Through darkened panes, we witness the isolation and malaise of depressive winters that nearly took his life. This masterful chronicle allows us to peer into a restless and kinetic existence in one moment and a chasm of fatigue and hopelessness on the next page.
It's an account that will change your perspective. It's a bipolar journey that you won't ever forget.
Discussion Points:
- Why we should read their book
- A different kind a mental health memoir
- How the book is presented
- Lukas’s fathers last wish
- Past stigma about mental health
- Civil rights movement
- Vietnam war and environmental activism
- Reach out to Lukas at [email protected]
Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted:
Book Interrupted YouTube Channel
Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group
Lukas’s website: Words With My Father
Words With My Father: A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times by Lukas Klessig and Lowell Klessig
Previous Episode
Off The Shelf Episode 22 - Twilight Interrupted
Hold on to your bookmarks! Book Interrupted is Off The Shelf. We’ve never picked Twilight by Stephanie Meyer as a book pick, but it doesn’t mean Book Interrupted hasn’t discussed it! Sarah is clearly obsessed and it doesn’t take much for the conversations to veer towards Twilight at any given time. Is Kim right, should we rename the podcast Twilight Interrupted?
Discussion Points:
- How Sarah’s obsession with Twilight started
- Explaining to Meredith Twilight
- Twilight book verse the movie
- What happens when you become a vampire
- Opps, don’t bring up Twilight around Sarah
- Meredith’s book picks aren’t for everyone
- Lia’s guilt about cutting a book years later
- Romance book pick, but it’s not Twilight
- Twilight needs to be a book pick on Book Interrupted
- Puppies and baby vampires
- Sarah’s consumed everything available for Twilight
Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted:
Book Interrupted YouTube Channel
Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group
The Hunger Games
Sapiens for Kids - Unstoppable Us
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin Of The Earth by William Bryant Logan
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Fifty Shades of Gray by EL James
Next Episode
The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle Episode
Book Interrupted is back for season 5! We start the season with Kim’s book pick “The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island” by Kent Monkman and Gisèle Gordon.The women discuss the book and all agree its completely unique and don’t know how to describe it to others. They discuss the pros and cons of the audio book vs the physical book. There is a lot to unfold in this book from Cree, culture, history, gender, shame, greed, art, sex, more sex and even more sex.
Discussion Points:
- Kent Monkman’s Art
- Audio book verses physical book
- Learning Cree
- Real History
- Explaining the book to others
- LGTBQ+ or indigenous culture
- Gender, sex and settler shame
- Having more then you need
- The Hunger Games and Twilight -would it be an episode without these?
- Truth and reconciliation commitment
- Do they recommend the book
Mentioned on this episode of Book Interrupted:
Book Interrupted YouTube Channel
Book Interrupted Facebook Book Club Group
The Memoir of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle by Kent Monkman and Gisèle Gordon
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
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