Eminently readable and worthy of attention.
A trip through the author’s mental illness told in a heartwarming, self-deprecating style.
It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a narrator who begins her tale of annual hospitalizations and a suicide attempt with this description of her bipolar disorder: “To me, the word implies savant-like capabilities. The label crazy is equivalent to the GED of mental disorders, whereas bipolar sounds more like holding a PhD in the field. ‘Congratulations, you are bipolar!’ ” It just gets better from there. From a tongue-in-cheek portrait of the psych ward’s command post, which reads, “It’s this glass-enclosed circular structure where the staff is stationed and on display for the patients to poke fun at. Needless to say, it’s a noisy location. There’s always some patient banging on the glass, declaring his seventy-two-hour notice of release. No matter how delusional patients may be, they always seem to be cognizant enough to know their legal rights”; to a gorgeous deep analysis of a fellow patient, “I pull back the curtain, allowing the setting sun to cast a soft amber light on her face. I hesitate for a moment as I study the weathered lines on her face. Why do we feel the need to erase our wrinkles? They define who we are and tell our stories. On second thought, maybe that’s why we feel so compelled.” Haynes jumps back and forth in time, mirroring her own manic thought processes, and devotes chapters to her son and husband so that they may have their say, all in the blink of an eye and with the humblest of hearts. Her eloquence is strikingly clear-headed for a self-proclaimed “crazy” person. Indeed, a chapter where she compares psychosis to divine revelation is simple and powerful, ending with, “Call me crazy, but I happen to believe in things unseen, unheard, unspoken, and intangible. I have no other choice.” Eat your heart out, James Frey.
Eminently readable and worthy of attention.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-1643-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A vibrant, encouraging depiction of a sinister disorder.
A British novelist turns to autobiography to report the manifold symptoms and management of his debilitating disease, depression.
Clever author Haig (The Humans, 2013, etc.) writes brief, episodic vignettes, not of a tranquil life but of an existence of unbearable, unsustainable melancholy. Throughout his story, presented in bits frequently less than a page long (e.g., “Things you think during your 1,000th panic attack”), the author considers phases he describes in turn as Falling, Landing, Rising, Living, and, finally, simply Being with spells of depression. Haig lists markers of his unseen disease, including adolescent angst, pain, continual dread, inability to speak, hypochondria, and insomnia. He describes his frequent panic attacks and near-constant anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. Haig also assesses the efficacy of neuroscience, yoga, St. John’s wort, exercise, pharmaceuticals, silence, talking, walking, running, staying put, and working up the courage to do even the most seemingly mundane of tasks, like visiting the village store. Best for the author were reading, writing, and the frequent dispensing of kindnesses and love. He acknowledges particularly his debt to his then-girlfriend, now-wife. After nearly 15 years, Haig is doing better. He appreciates being alive and savors the miracle of existence. His writing is infectious though sometimes facile—and grammarians may be upset with the writer’s occasional confusion of the nominative and objective cases of personal pronouns. Less tidy and more eclectic than William Styron’s equally brief, iconic Darkness Visible, Haig’s book provides unobjectionable advice that will offer some help and succor to those who experience depression and other related illnesses. For families and friends of the afflicted, Haig’s book, like Styron’s, will provide understanding and support.
A vibrant, encouraging depiction of a sinister disorder.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-312872-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
SEEN & HEARD
Readers Donate Depression Book After Star Suicide
An easy reading book of supportive encouragement to follow one’s dreams.
More than 40 career-changers tell their stories.
Introduced by Facebook executive and founder of Leanin.org Sheryl Sandberg, Lewis’ second cousin, the book offers exuberant advice for people who want to make a leap—daring or modest—from one career path to another, just as he did. At the age of 24, working for the investment firm Bain Capital, the author felt restless and dissatisfied. “I began to realize,” he writes, “that I wanted this life mostly because I thought I should,” but he heard “a very distinct if faint voice” urging him to try something “very different.” As he considered following his passion to become a professional squash player, Lewis sought advice from others who made similar jumps: a banker-turned-cyclist, for example, and a journalist-turned-politician. From them, and the others whose stories fill the book, he came up with the idea of the Jump Curve, a process of four key phases: listening to your inner voice, making a practical plan, believing in your own good luck, and rejecting regret. “You will come out stronger,” Lewis insists, even if your initial plan fails. “I keep coming back to the idea of agency,” said a man who made a move from corporate hospitality service to restaurant ownership: “the difference between life happening to you versus you making life happen.” Among the individuals profiled are a nurse who, at the age of 50, became a doctor; a football player–turned-writer; an investment professional who became coxswain of the U.S. Paralympic Rowing Team; a PR executive who found her calling as an Episcopal bishop; and a lawyer who sued the New York fire department to admit women firefighters—and then became the first woman hired. “Harassment, discrimination, death threats,” and physical abuse dogged her 25-year career. But, she says, “this was a jump worth fighting for,” a sentiment that Lewis underscores. Changing careers is risky, but “there is a risk to not taking a jump at all.”
An easy reading book of supportive encouragement to follow one’s dreams.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-12421-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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