Welcome to My Breakdown

In her “eminently readable memoir about turning darkness back into light” (People), the nationally bestselling author of Good Hair candidly shares her journey from having it all to plunging into a deep depression after her beloved mother’s death—and finally climbing back out. Benilde Little’s life appeared perfect. A bestselling novelist with two beautiful children, a handsome husband, a gorgeous home, and good friends, she had every reason to feel on top of the world. She was mindful of the sacrifices that enabled her to prosper and never took the good life for granted. But when illness and aging overtook her parents, and other challenges suddenly loomed, she went into a tailspin of clinical depression. Little chronicles her descent into a cavern so dark and impenetrable that she didn’t know if she’d ever recover. But, as she learns, the only road out of depression is through it. She reflects back on her protected upbringing in Newark, New Jersey; celebrates her remarkable mother; and tracks her youth from an early relationship with the Nation of Islam, to the city life of a young professional, to the domesticity of the suburbs. After finding herself sandwiched between the twin demands of elder care and childcare, she explores how, with therapy and introspection, she regained her voice and mapped a way out of her depression. Writing in the courageous tradition of great female storytellers such as Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, and Pearl Cleage, Little doesn’t hold back as she shares insights, inspiration, and intimate details of her life with her trademark candor and fearlessness. Powerful, relatable, and ultimately redemptive, Welcome to My Breakdown is a remarkable memoir about the strength within us all to rise from despair and to feel hope and joy again.