Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

The fact that the Galvins’ family home provides the title indicates its symbolic importance to the work. At the time the Galvins bought it, the house embodied the post-war American aspiration for a better life; as “one of the first in a new life of suburban homes meant to cater to Academy families who wanted a little more room” (51), it spoke to the era’s faith in economic expansion and upward mobility. In a sense, even its seclusion was typical of the mood of the time, reflecting the tendency of many Americans to look to the domestic sphere and idealized family life during the uncertainty of the Cold War: “[L]iving there, to Mimi, felt as far away from the nuclear age as could be—more timeless, more natural, more authentic” (52).

For Kolker, the house on Hidden Valley Road therefore serves as a shorthand for the American dream, and as Don and Mimi’s version of this dream sours, its significance shifts. It isn’t simply that, for many of the younger children, the house was never the refuge that it initially was for Mimi; rather, the relative isolation of the house becomes representative of the family’s experience of schizophrenia.