An evocative and insightful memoir of thriving with ADHD.
Denevi explores “the mountains of material on ADHD from the point of view of a patient.”
The author seeks a middle ground in the debate over whether ADHD is overdiagnosed and/or overmedicated. In his own case, the first symptoms of his problem were frequent meltdowns and impulsive behavior when playing with other children or in a classroom situation. He describes his earliest memory of a tantrum, when he experienced “something deeper than anger, a sense of desperation akin to homesickness” after being chastised for a minor infraction. Today, Denevi explains, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists nine symptoms of ADHD, of which six must be met for a diagnosis. His behavior at age 5 fit all of the symptoms, but this was in 1985, when the condition was still poorly defined. Only after a year during which he was subjected to a number of tests to exclude food allergies or epilepsy was Denevi finally diagnosed with the condition. He was first prescribed Ritalin, but the medication increased his agitation, and he was switched to a mild antidepressant. He was also treated by a child psychologist throughout his childhood and adolescence, and his parents worked closely with his therapist and teachers to help him control his impulsiveness and distractibility. In classrooms where his teachers were sympathetic, his behavior improved, but he was the target of bullies. As he grew into his teens, his attitude became more flamboyant and assertive; this led him to minor delinquency. With strong support from his parents, he managed to excel academically. Now married and a father, Denevi still copes with symptoms of the disorder and takes small doses of Ritalin. In his view, the treatment of ADHD should aim to alleviate “the levels of conflict and stress” so that children can “make it safely into adulthood.”
Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0257-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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