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    I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays
    I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays
    I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays
    Audiobook7 hours

    I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays

    Written by Bassey Ikpi

    Narrated by Bassey Ikpi

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    2020 Audie Finalist – Short Stories/Collections

    In I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying Bassey Ikpi explores her life—as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist—through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of bipolar II and anxiety. Her remarkable memoir in essays implodes our preconceptions of the mind and normalcy as Bassey bares her own truths and lies for us all to behold with radical honesty and brutal intimacy.

    A Bitch Magazine Most Anticipated Book of 2019 • A Bustle 21 New Memoirs That Will Inspire, Motivate, and Captivate You • A Publishers Weekly Spring Preview Selection • An Electric Lit 48 Books by Women and Nonbinary Authors of Color to Read in 2019 • A Bookish Best Nonfiction of Summer Selection

    ""We will not think or talk about mental health or normalcy the same after reading this momentous art object moonlighting as a colossal collection of essays.”     —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

    From her early childhood in Nigeria through her adolescence in Oklahoma, Bassey Ikpi lived with a tumult of emotions, cycling between extreme euphoria and deep depression—sometimes within the course of a single day. By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO's Def Poetry Jam, channeling her life into art. But beneath the façade of the confident performer, Bassey's mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II.

    In I'm Telling the Truth, But I'm Lying, Bassey Ikpi breaks open our understanding of mental health by giving us intimate access to her own. Exploring shame, confusion, medication, and family in the process, Bassey looks at how mental health impacts every aspect of our lives—how we appear to others, and more importantly to ourselves—and challenges our preconception about what it means to be ""normal.""  Viscerally raw and honest, the result is an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of who we are—and the ways, as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 20, 2019
    ISBN9780062894786
    Author

    Bassey Ikpi

    Bassey Ikpi is a Nigerian-American writer, ex-poet, constant mental health advocate, underachieving overachiever and memoir procrastinator. She lives in Maryland with her soccer superstar son.  www.basseyikpi.com/  

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    Reviews for I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying

    4.5/5

    101 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      There are so many things that are easier to leave unsaid and inside. Bassey says them ALL. She puts it ALL out there where it should be - in the open letting the hurt can lay on the wind.

      May we all be this brave.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I love how the author (Bassey) was vulnerable in describing what goes on in the head of those with mental illness. I got to see things from a different perspective and I learnt a lot.
      This is a great book. I loved reading it
    • 5/5
      This book was real and raw and I am so glad that I listened to it. I felt this book like I was there with her as she went through it. I thank her for sharing her experience when most people suffer in silence.
    • 5/5
      Wow - beautifully written with heart and honesty. Highly recommend!!
    • 5/5
      Amazing! Breath-taking! Ikpi pours her soul into this narration of her book. Following along with the text was the best too! But audiobook alone, it’ll take you places. Mental health is very important and the awareness Ikpi brings to it by sharing her own struggles, her battle — it’s truly inspiring! Please read it/listen to it. You just must!
    • 4/5
      A very powerful memoir about mental illness and bipolar told from the experience of a Nigerian woman.
    • 5/5
      Very well written and unforgettable! Amazing narrating by the author.
    • 5/5
      nonfiction--autobiographical essays of Nigerian-born immigrant and spoken word poet who deals with mental health issues (bipolar II), bad relationships and other things.
      lyrically poetic with powerful storytelling; I decided to switch to the audiobook since I've been too distracted to absorb much of the text but I could tell the author is an exceptional writer.
    • 4/5
      In this beautifully written, but disjointed collection of autobiographical essays, Nigerian-American author Bassey Ikpi shares what her life is like with bipolar disorder II, a mental illness characterized by persistent depression interspersed with episodes of hypomania. Sleeping and eating are two of her major problem areas, and she also has debilitating anxiety. Various medications help her symptoms but come with their own side effects. All of these issues take a severe toll on her ability to function as an adult, with a job, relationships, and other responsibilities.Prior to picking up this book I was completely unfamiliar with Bassey Ikpi, although apparently she has appeared on the stage and screen. I would have appreciated head notes or some other device to provide more context for Ikpi's essays. All in all, a helpful collection for understanding the lived experience of mental illness.

      1 person found this helpful