The Kevin Show: An Olympic Athlete's Battle with Mental Illness

by Mary Pilon

Overview

From the NYT bestselling author of The Monopolists, the "fascinating" (People) story of Olympian Kevin Hall and the syndrome that makes him believe he stars in a television show of his life.

Meet Kevin Hall: brother, son, husband, father, and Olympic sailor. Kevin has an Ivy League degree, a winning smile, and throughout his adult life, he has been engaged in an ongoing battle with a person that doesn't exist to anyone but him: the Director. In the tradition of Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, journalist and NYT bestselling author Mary Pilon's The Kevin Show reveals the many-sided struggle—of Kevin, his family, and the medical profession—to understand and treat a psychiatric disorder whose euphoric highs and creative ties to pop culture have become inextricable from Kevin's experience of himself.

Kevin suffers from what doctors are beginning to call the "Truman Show" delusion, a form of bipolar disorder named for the 1998 movie in which the main character realizes he is the star of a reality TV show. When the Director commands Kevin to do things, the results often lead to handcuffs, hospitalization, or both. Once he nearly drove a car into Boston Harbor. His girlfriend, now wife, was in the passenger seat.

Interweaving Kevin's perspective—including excerpts from his journals and sketches—with police reports, medical records, and interviews with those who were present at key moments in his life, The Kevin Show is a bracing, suspenseful, and eye-opening view of the role that mental health plays in a seemingly ordinary life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632866820
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Mary Pilon is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Monopolists, the acclaimed history of the board game Monopoly. A regular contributor to The New Yorker, Esquire, Fast Company, MSNBC, Vice, and Politico, Pilon has also worked as a staff reporter at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and was a producer for NBC Sports at the 2016 Olympics. She lives in Brooklyn. Visit her website at marypilon.com and follow her on Twitter at @marypilon.

Table of Contents

Prologue xiii

Part I Meet Kevin Hall 1

Part II The Highs 23

Part III The Lows 151

Part IV Finale 219

Afterword 257

A Note On Sources 265

Recommended Readings and Mental Health Resources 266

Thank-Yous and Coffee Shops 273

Notes 281

Editorial Reviews

08/28/2017
Former New York Times reporter Pilon (The Monopolists) recounts the life story of Kevin Hall, a competitive sailor and two-time cancer survivor whose bipolar disorder makes him think he is the star of a reality TV show. During manic episodes, Kevin hears “the Director” command him to do things on “the Show,” such as drive his car into Boston Harbor (he’s saved when his car hits a fence) or jump off the roof of a tower (a seagull distracts him just in time). Kevin’s delusions have led to arrests, hospitalizations, psychiatric treatments, and struggles with medication, but they’ve also become part of who he is. In a breezily written, sometimes suspenseful narrative, Pilon examines Kevin’s efforts to understand and control his symptoms as he establishes himself as a competitive sailor, taking part in the America’s Cup race and the 2004 Olympics. She observes that, compared to many other mentally ill people, Kevin enjoys a “very privileged support system”; both of his parents and his wife are doctors. Though continual shifts in point of view between Kevin, his family members, and others keep the author from fully developing her ideas, her work draws attention to the toll of mental illness on individuals and their families. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents. (Mar. 2018)

Publishers Weekly

"Absorbing and empathetic . . . Pilon is a paragon of dogged research. She’s best in reconstructing (via hundreds of hours of interviews) the intertwined life struggles of Hall, his steadfast sweetheart and eventual wife, his vexed parents and some denizens of the competitive sailing world. Her attempts to reach Hall’s “inner world” display levels of empathy that touch the heart." - New York Times Book Review

"As [The Kevin Show] journeys through Hall's illness, it also forces readers to consider the 'sanity' of their own relationship to a media-saturated world . . . Grippingly provocative reading." - Kirkus Reviews

"Pilon’s compelling portrait of a remarkable young man and the challenges he faces as a cancer survivor, Olympic athlete, and bipolar patient underscores all the difficulties involved, especially in treating mental illness, and offers insights into the effects it has on patients and their families." - Booklist

"A captivating narrative that details the many challenges Hall has faced as a result of his disorder . . . Sharp and compelling, this highly entertaining account will reframe the way you see mental health in everyday life." - Bustle

"Kevin Hall battles a rare delusion. He often believes he's starring in his own reality show. Despite that, he's a husband, dad, and Olympic sailor. How does that work? Fascinating." - People Magazine

"Draws attention to the toll of mental illness on individuals and their families." - Publishers Weekly

"[A] nonfiction standout . . . With impressive detail and sensitivity, journalist Mary Pilon, captures the highs and lows of Kevin’s life with mental illness." - Best of the Year, Real Simple

"Pilon's empathetic approach and Hall's precise expression of his unique inner world make this an important biographical study for mental health collections, sports fans, and readers interested in the increasingly blurry line between fantasy and reality." - Library Journal

"Spellbinding. Brilliant. A true-life psychological thriller that captures the ongoing drama of a major mental illness as it unfolds while also recognizing its complexity and majesty." - Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., bestselling author of DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

"[A] fascinating history . . . The Monopolists lucidly weaves together a multifaceted story . . . [It] builds to an intense pitch—while highlighting several fundamental issues of capitalism." - Los Angeles Times on THE MONOPOLISTS

"A legal, corporate and intellectual whodunit . . . The tale, like the game, becomes a parable for American capitalism, with powerful players stamping out competitors and fortunes being made or destroyed at the roll of the dice . . . anyone who grew up playing Monopoly will have a hard time resisting The Monopolists." - Washington Post on THE MONOPOLISTS

"Highly entertaining . . . Like Monopoly itself, the book unfolds in interesting directions, probing into lost Quaker communities, the early history of Atlantic City, and how a game originally invented to critique capitalism became its most diverting simulacrum." - The Boston Globe on THE MONOPOLISTS

"With more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie mystery, reporter Pilon reveals the tumultuous history of Monopoly . . . More entertaining than the game itself." - Starred review, Publishers Weekly on THE MONOPOLISTS

"Briskly enlightening . . . [Pilon] has woven a plush, often humorous tapestry of board-game and social history." - New York Times Book Review on THE MONOPOLISTS

From the Publisher

2017-11-26
An award-winning journalist tells the story of one man's struggle with a rare form of bipolar disorder called the Truman Show delusion.Kevin Hall had it all: intelligence, money, and good looks as well as a deep love of sailing, a sport that defined his identity from boyhood. Hall excelled in school and, under the guidance of his hard-driving father, won many prestigious sailing awards. He then went to Brown University, where he double majored in math and French literature and also qualified to train with U.S. Sailing Team coaches. During his junior year, Hall suffered the first of many psychotic breaks. He also became aware of "The Director," an illness-born figure that pressed him to do anything from travel out of town to walk into ongoing traffic for "The Show," an imaginary reality TV broadcast intended for a worldwide audience. Hall finished college but not without facing more demands from the Director, encounters with the police, and stints in mental hospitals. Back home in California, he continued to train with the idea of one day fulfilling his Olympic dreams. Hall also battled to stay on medications he hated and overcome testicular cancer. He eventually married his college girlfriend, made the America's Cup Team, and participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he finished 11th. Yet, as journalist Pilon (The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game, 2015) ably shows, every triumph was laced with struggle and feelings of monumental failure. He also faced the stern judgment of a father who believed his son was not trying hard enough to overcome his illness. After one especially bad manic episode, the elder Hall told his son he had "wasted time and hard-earned money to be part of Kevin's indulgence." The narrative, which is interspersed throughout with photos, interviews, and excerpts from Hall's journals, reads like an in-depth character study of a morbidly delusional man. As it journeys through Hall's illness, it also forces readers to consider the "sanity" of their own relationship to a media-saturated world.Grippingly provocative reading.

Kirkus Reviews