There are some topics that Mona Simpson has made her stocks-in-trade --- family dynamics, the lack of or need for money, California social rituals, college life. Although many of her characters (particularly mothers) seem to suffer from some fairly serious mental health issues, they are never diagnosed or treated. Usually, Simpson focuses on the havoc that these women wreak on their families who don’t understand what’s happening.

But in her latest effort, COMMITMENT, Simpson manages to hand half of the novel over to Diane Aziz, a mother of three who has a breakdown and is sent to a state hospital. Her struggle becomes her children’s struggle, and their commitments become overwhelming. Now we are in prime Simpson territory.

"COMMITMENT is a serious look at a challenging situation that affects millions of people around the world --- helping loved ones with mental health issues. It is a tough subject, and the ways in which this family tries to work around it with the limited help available is heart-wrenching."

Simpson puts the family in distress fairly quickly. Walter goes to Berkeley and soon realizes that he will need to fend for himself financially at school. His sister, Lina, works in an ice cream shop and plans to get herself accepted into the same Ivy League schools that her friends will be attending. Donnie, their little brother, is a gamer/coder who ends up living a beach bum lifestyle. Diane’s workmate, Julie, comes to the rescue and decides to care for the kids while their mother gets better. Julie is a godsend since their estranged father has no interest in helping the family, giving Lina $300 and sending her back home. He tells her that he is in love with another woman and can’t find the time to delve too deeply into their situation.

Walter loves architecture but is pre-med. When asked to design a home, most students create one for themselves and their future families. Walter designs a home that he thinks his mother would like. He finds comfort in the fact that architects believe that whatever building they create will enhance the business done within its walls. Thomas Story Kirkbride was a psychiatrist who believed that mental health facilities should be built in a manner that would inspire patients to have a full recovery. Walter knows this is a great idea, but his mother is in a place that bears no resemblance to a caring facility.

Each time Julie takes Walter, Lina and Donnie to the hospital to see Diane, they all learn a little more about each other. It is clear that Julie misses Diane very much and considers their friendship her rock. There is hope that Diane will recover. And Julie is happy to push that narrative to the kids for their own good but perhaps also for her own good.

Although the main point of the book is Diane needing help and how it affects each of the children just as they are trying to figure out how to move into the adult world, Simpson takes her time telling the story. The novel drifts back and forth between the five main characters. It is almost as if she is recording their everyday lives and watching them as their family psychologist. She is a skillful observer, but these people never seem to have a light moment or any fun whatsoever.

COMMITMENT is a serious look at a challenging situation that affects millions of people around the world --- helping loved ones with mental health issues. It is a tough subject, and the ways in which this family tries to work around it with the limited help available is heart-wrenching. The book is absorbing in its search for answers, and the children in particular have such different ways of dealing with what is happening that most readers will be able to find someone here to whom they relate.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the novel is its own commitment to hope --- for the mother struggling with her own needs, for the children she can’t attend to at the moment, for the friend who tries to step in and do the right thing. It is committed to those who do not give up in the face of crisis and those who find a way to navigate the most difficult and unexpected circumstances. It is a human story, written in common language, that explores a very human need, as the title announces.

Although COMMITMENT is no beach read, it is a book to be read slowly and considered thoughtfully.