Monday, March 28, 2005
book thirteen
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
by Andrew Solomon
I checked this out of the library after one of my imaginary friends in the computer recommended it. She said that she read it in an attempt to better understand her partner, who suffers from serious depression. I thought it sounded interesting, especially if it brought understanding to my friend, so I picked it up. It actually took me two tries to read the whole book.
I was first taken aback by the tone of the book - the author, himself a sufferer of depression, wrote in first person. While some of the book is personal in nature, dealing with his own breakdowns and recoveries, a lot of the material is factual in nature. For example, there's an entire chapter on the history of depression - it's fascinating, by the way, especially if you were forced to read a whole lot of 18th-century British romantic literature. (Little English major joke there.) Almost every chapter has several stories from people Solomon interviewed for the book about their own experiences with depression.
I'm glad I read the book - it was certainly informative and told me a great deal about the nature of severe depression. Mostly, though, I felt relieved that I am not that sick. I do struggle with depression, but for me, it manifests itself as anxiety and sadness - not abject fear or inability to get out of bed or suicidal ideation or self-mutilation. It may be a little perverse, but I took some joy out of being able to say, "Hey, I'm not very sick at all!"
by Andrew Solomon
I checked this out of the library after one of my imaginary friends in the computer recommended it. She said that she read it in an attempt to better understand her partner, who suffers from serious depression. I thought it sounded interesting, especially if it brought understanding to my friend, so I picked it up. It actually took me two tries to read the whole book.
I was first taken aback by the tone of the book - the author, himself a sufferer of depression, wrote in first person. While some of the book is personal in nature, dealing with his own breakdowns and recoveries, a lot of the material is factual in nature. For example, there's an entire chapter on the history of depression - it's fascinating, by the way, especially if you were forced to read a whole lot of 18th-century British romantic literature. (Little English major joke there.) Almost every chapter has several stories from people Solomon interviewed for the book about their own experiences with depression.
I'm glad I read the book - it was certainly informative and told me a great deal about the nature of severe depression. Mostly, though, I felt relieved that I am not that sick. I do struggle with depression, but for me, it manifests itself as anxiety and sadness - not abject fear or inability to get out of bed or suicidal ideation or self-mutilation. It may be a little perverse, but I took some joy out of being able to say, "Hey, I'm not very sick at all!"
Labels: book reports, depression, medical
