Born and raised in Hawaii, Cindy Lee Neighbors enjoys an apparently perfect life: she serves in the US Army as an otolaryngologist, married to another Army surgeon and surrounded by the natural beauty of her home state. But a troubled childhood plants the seeds of countless struggles and disappointments, and friction in both her personal and professional lives derails Neighbors’s plans for her perfect life.

TOO MUCH is a fascinating memoir. The realities of publication mean that its expected and intended audience will be English-speaking Americans, and, for much of that audience, Neighbors’s story will be enlightening if not outright shocking. Her emotional journey involves a great deal of de-mythologizing “heroic” American institutions (most explicitly tied up in her marriage to another servicemember and doctor, a veteran of Afghanistan), and that in itself generates a lot of interest. It’s a privileged peek at the dysfunction of the Army (and of hospital staff) in ways that are unsurprising but still uncomfortable for those who cleave to those American cultural myths. In narrative terms, this de-mythologizing is well-structured and well-paced. There’s a clear psychological and emotional reality in progressing from child/parent relationship-related trauma to broader challenges with forming interpersonal relationships to friction in the workplace—and ultimately a near-break from reality itself. However, rendering this progression as narrative isn’t necessarily straightforward. TOO MUCH strikes a successful balance: the reader sees this progression, and appreciates Neighbors’ flaws and mistakes, but still cares about her.

TOO MUCH sometimes feels stylistically conservative. A self-conscious memoir, the text rarely takes a “scenic” approach that would feel like creative nonfiction. Hawaii, for instance, is ever-present, and Neighbors frequently goes to the ocean to reflect (or party), but aside from a few images like palm trees “casting dappled shadows on the turquoise water,” there’s little scenic detail. Specific interactions with others are brisk; patterns of behavior are described instead. Though it may feel cool or distant to some readers, this choice reflects the focus of the text: it is, in essence, a memoir of the author’s psychological and emotional states, and the narrative distance from the setting or specific events is a reflection of Neighbors’s increasing alienation from reality. This also, surprisingly, builds empathy: Neighbors’s confusion about her own frustrations and paranoia (on a slippery slope from typical gender-based workplace challenges to feelings of acute persecution) are very successfully conveyed to the reader.

Despite its apparent simplicity, TOO MUCH manages to subtly and powerfully negotiate the challenges of memoir. Its critiques of institutional cultures—especially medical and military cultures—are built on a solid foundation of empathy for its flawed but honest narrator.

Challenging but rewarding, Cindy Lee Neighbors’s TOO MUCH is an incisive memoir of the soul-crushing dysfunction of both medical and military culture in the US.

~Dan Accardi for IndieReader