Overview

As seen on Good Morning America's SEPTEMBER 2020 READING LIST and FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020! ""We need to read stories about folks who have been through hell and kept going... Fascinating."" --Glennon Doyle, A Favorite Book of 2020 on Good Morning America ""Gildiner is nothing short of masterful--as both a therapist and writer. In these pages, she has gorgeously captured both the privilege of being given access to the inner chambers of people's lives, and the meaning that comes from watching them grow into the selves they were meant to be."" --Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone In this fascinating narrative, therapist Catherine Gildiner's presents five of what she calls her most heroic and memorable patients. Among them: a successful, first generation Chinese immigrant musician suffering sexual dysfunction; a young woman whose father abandoned her at age nine with her younger siblings in an isolated cottage in the depth of winter; and a glamorous workaholic whose narcissistic, negligent mother greeted her each morning of her childhood with ""Good morning, Monster."" Each patient presents a mystery, one that will only be unpacked over years. They seek Gildiner's help to overcome an immediate challenge in their lives, but discover that the source of their suffering has been long buried. As in such recent classics as The Glass Castle and Educated, each patient embodies self-reflection, stoicism, perseverance, and forgiveness as they work unflinchingly to face the truth. Gildiner's account of her journeys with them is moving, insightful, and sometimes very funny. Good Morning Monster offers an almost novelistic, behind-the-scenes look into the therapist's office, illustrating how the process can heal even the most unimaginable wounds.

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9781250271488

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Brilliant piece of work, both heart-rending and chilling. I was moved to tears... a great book for any time. The greatest value is the skill of the storyteller and the insights into her own incredible contribution to the outcome of these extraordinary people. I had promised myself that I would read one episode for each of five days. Instead I read right through from beginning to end. --Valery Hemingway, author of Running With the Bulls Good Morning, Monster allows one the privilege of seeing the therapist-patient relationship as an essentially human interaction. --JM Coetzee, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Heartbreaking, surprising, inspiring, and profound, this is ultimately a book about the power of connection and the triumph of the human spirit. --Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and our Lives Revealed Enthusiastic and insightful --Toronto Star Like Oliver Sacks, Catherine Gildiner loves her patients... Gildiner is a master of shoot-from-the-hip nonfiction--funny, direct and honest about what she sees in others and what she sees in herself. Highly readable! --Susan Swan, author of The Wives of Bath This is a compelling and compressed journey through years of psychotherapy for each of these five people, with crystalline moments of connection and meaning... Gildiner is astute, active, pragmatic, and hopeful. She is also very funny. Her wit and her wisdom are gifts shared with these five people--and now with all of us readers. --David S. Goldbloom, co-author of How Can I Help?: A week in My Life as a Psychiatrist These stories are almost mythic in their power... I couldn't put this book down. --Antanas Sileika, author of Provisionally Yours Compelling, heart-in-throat stories prove no one is 'damaged goods.' I'm in awe of the five patients and of Gildiner's exceptional creativity as she guides each one toward emotional freedom. --Rona Maynard, author of My Mother's Daughter

Good Morning, Monster allows one the privilege of seeing the therapist-patient relationship as an essentially human interaction. --JM Coetzee, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Heartbreaking, surprising, inspiring, and profound, this is ultimately a book about the power of connection and the triumph of the human spirit. --Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and our Lives Revealed Enthusiastic and insightful --Toronto Star Like Oliver Sacks, Catherine Gildiner loves her patients... Gildiner is a master of shoot-from-the-hip nonfiction--funny, direct and honest about what she sees in others and what she sees in herself. Highly readable! --Susan Swan, author of The Wives of Bath This is a compelling and compressed journey through years of psychotherapy for each of these five people, with crystalline moments of connection and meaning... Gildiner is astute, active, pragmatic, and hopeful. She is also very funny. Her wit and her wisdom are gifts shared with these five people--and now with all of us readers. --David S. Goldbloom, co-author of How Can I Help?: A week in My Life as a Psychiatrist These stories are almost mythic in their power... I couldn't put this book down. --Antanas Sileika, author of Provisionally Yours Compelling, heart-in-throat stories prove no one is 'damaged goods.' I'm in awe of the five patients and of Gildiner's exceptional creativity as she guides each one toward emotional freedom. --Rona Maynard, author of My Mother's Daughter

Brilliant piece of work, both heart-rending and chilling. I was moved to tears... a great book for any time. The greatest value is the skill of the storyteller and the insights into her own incredible contribution to the outcome of these extraordinary people. I had promised myself that I would read one episode for each of five days. Instead I read right through from beginning to end. --Valery Hemingway, author of Running With the Bulls Good Morning, Monster allows one the privilege of seeing the therapist-patient relationship as an essentially human interaction. --JM Coetzee, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Heartbreaking, surprising, inspiring, and profound, this is ultimately a book about the power of connection and the triumph of the human spirit. --Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and our Lives Revealed Enthusiastic and insightful --Toronto Star Like Oliver Sacks, Catherine Gildiner loves her patients... Gildiner is a master of shoot-from-the-hip nonfiction--funny, direct and honest about what she sees in others and what she sees in herself. Highly readable! --Susan Swan, author of The Wives of Bath This is a compelling and compressed journey through years of psychotherapy for each of these five people, with crystalline moments of connection and meaning... Gildiner is astute, active, pragmatic, and hopeful. She is also very funny. Her wit and her wisdom are gifts shared with these five people--and now with all of us readers. --David S. Goldbloom, co-author of How Can I Help?: A week in My Life as a Psychiatrist These stories are almost mythic in their power... I couldn't put this book down. --Antanas Sileika, author of Provisionally Yours Compelling, heart-in-throat stories prove no one is 'damaged goods.' I'm in awe of the five patients and of Gildiner's exceptional creativity as she guides each one toward emotional freedom. --Rona Maynard, author of My Mother's Daughter

Author Information

CATHERINE GILDINER was a clinical psychologist in private practice for twenty-five years. Her best-selling memoir Too Close to The Falls was published to international acclaim. She lives in Toronto.

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