Regina's Record

REGINA'S RECORD is a uniquely powerful, thought-provoking, narrative about a resilient, feisty woman whose quality of life was destroyed by the horrific treatment she endured during 32 long years in the American VA psychiatric system. Regina Van Amber is the unfortunate schizophrenic whose story was culled from more than 13,000 government records (which took 7 years to be released) and is graphically recreated over 256 pages by Regina's son, James Anthony Van Amber of Mankato, Minnesota. Told with a dispassionate, yet touching and unforgettable poignancy, REGINA'S RECORD makes superlative reading. Juxtaposed against his mother's relentless trauma, is the story of James' own tortured development involving deep feelings of hurt, confusion, personal abandonment, self-doubt, isolation, sexual and emotional failure, low self-worth and acute peer pressure. The absence of a father and denial of his existence by his own mother, meant that the story is a modern tragedy spiced with dry wit