A short, empathetic, and helpful work about coping with depression.
Andrews draws on her experiences to offer strategies for living with depression in this memoiristic self-help guide.
Suffering from depression for her entire adult life, Andrews had her first manic episode at age 47 and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her brother also suffered from the condition, which, because it appeared much earlier in his life, led to him being institutionalized. Andrews’ son has been diagnosed as well. Now retired, after a successful life of work, children, and only one manic episode, Andrews shares her relevant experiences in the hope that they might help others: “I write this book for all those who find themselves depressed...to let you know that someone understands how you are feeling and that you are not alone in your suffering.” She takes the reader through her history of various treatments, from support groups to medication to counseling, some of which proved quite helpful and many of which did not. She details her personal scale for depression and how she reacts to it on days when she is at Level 1 versus days when she is at Level 10. The things she won’t do—smoke, eat junk food, wallow—are often as important as the things she will do. Andrews also invites the reader on a tour of her experiences with the disease in both herself and in her family (the famous Tolstoy quote “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” makes an appearance), analyzing the moments that tipped her life toward the place she’s ended up. In this short debut book, Andrews eschews the navel-gazing that one might expect from such a memoir, getting down to the bones of her disease and the ways she has managed to work through it. Her chapter on “Strategies for Escape” is particularly helpful, offering advice as practical as list-making and as long-term as writing. (For Andrews, poetry was a particular boon.) The greatest takeaway from the book is what an individualized experience depression is and how each person must struggle to find a way out of the cloud. Luckily, there is help.
A short, empathetic, and helpful work about coping with depression.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9968191-0-7
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Palila
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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