Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of a Disease
Review: Prozac Nation is not a book of great poetics, but it is a compelling book nonetheless. There is no question that Ellie comes across as an annoying, self-indulgent, self-absorbed, conceited and winy brat, but PN is a portrait of a disease, not a novel. I gave the book high ratings with that in mind - for what it is meant to be, this is an excellent book. In particular, the writing managed to draw me into the depths of her emotional states. Often times, I wanted someone to slap her with Cher's "snap out of it," but I also came to understand what it might feel like to live with a pain that is unending, unendurable and perhaps incurable.One of the most telling details, for me, came at times when Ellie expressed strange feelings of jealously guarded pride - my depression is worse than your depression. For me, this captured the essence of the psychological power game that seems to lie hidden within her condition. My only problem with the book is that when it was done, I wanted more. I hated letting go of her.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapointed...
Review: Have you ever read one of those books that starts out great and by the time you get to the end you are saying..."What!!!!" Well, that's what happened after I read this book. This book actually has very realistic views on depression and what happens when it gets out of control. The last 3 chapters of the book "rush" through the entire story line in order to get to the "end"...to me it felt like the author got bored with what they were writing so they needed to "hurry" and finish...if you have a few hours to kill with NOTHING to do..then go ahead and read this book..but if you are like me and enjoy a satisfying ending to a book then you can skip this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Whiny, self-indulgent claptrap
Review: Oh for god's sake! As a recovering alcoholic, I wanted to read Wurtzel's latest, her "memoir of addiction", but thought I would begin with "Prozac Nation". Where on earth is the gratitude for all the natural gifts she has been given? Apparently she is unable to get over her father leaving her - I was on his side not long into the book. Garbage like this is the reason most of the world hates America. Elizabeth, get over thyself.
Rating: 
Summary: Eh.
Review: Much has been written about the overly self-involved author, but there is little debate that she is actually a very good writer. The problem with Prozac Nation is that while outlining the story of her descent into depression, she gets very wrapped up in grand soliloquy. This could have been pared down by at least 75 pages had she not so frequently gone off on tangents about society, womanhood, and armchair philosophy. That's not why I picked it up.... Still, to her credit, her story rings painfully true to anyone who has ever suffered from Depression.....
Rating:
Summary: Superb at its best
Review: I had never read anything so thought-provoking until I read Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Elizabeth has a way of phrasing her emotions and the situations that her depression had put her into that just played in my head like a miniature movie. It's absolutely amazing when someone can do this with a work of fiction, but even more incredible when it is a memoir. Elizabeth starts the memoir with a night she and her roommate had decided to host a little party. Unfortunately, by the time everyone got there, she was too depressed to deal with them. She had gone off of her Lithium, which made her typical melancholy almost too much for her to handle. Then, Elizabeth starts discussing how her childhood started out much like any other person her age. Then, it just got worse and worse, much of that due to her parents and their self-absorbed personalities. Her father was neglectful and her mother invalidated Liz's feelings and made Liz look as though she was the cause of all of the turmoil. In certain ways, I could identify with Elizabeth even though her situations differed a great deal from my own...the emotions and reasonings behind them were much the same. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to teenage girls who have been suffering from depression. It kind of helps you to understand that someone else has been through the pain you're going through.
Rating:
Summary: Terribly self-centered and unenlightening
Review: This book is a terrible reminder of how unbearable an untreated narcissist can be. Wurtzel uses her illness as a mask for horrendous behavior and self-centered acts that would be considered unconscionable without her diagnosis.
She doesn't come up with any analysis of herself, and she manages to alienate not only the reader but it seems everyone else in her world, according to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Hits Close to Home
Review: Although the popular opinion about Wurtzel's writing is that she "mentions food too much" or "gives the wrong impression about depression", I find Pozac Nation to be greatly informative on the rollercoaster-extremes of depression. I too suffer from depression, and I identified with Wurtzel's attitudes towards the world and herself so much that I sometimes found myself setting the book down and thinking about how I don't feel so alone anymore. This book was written for all the lonely and scared depressives who are reluctant to seek help.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: i am only 15 years old, yet people tell me that when they talk to me, its more like im in my 30's. i found this confusing until i read Prozac Nation. i had just been looking at books when i was drawn to Elizabeth Wurtzel's interesting cover. i sat down on the floor in the middle of the store and began to read. i was immediately pulled into her truthful words. as a person that has lived through depression at a young age, its been hard for me to find someone else's experience in words that were similiar to my feelings. however, Prozac Nation explained depression and everything that comes with it in such a way that i felt as if i had written it myself. it was amazing how all of my feelings from the past 3 years were all in this book. thank you elizabeth wurtzel for that. i hope that everyone at some point in their life will read this great piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Oh I Confess
Review: There were times I just wanted to slap Elizabeth Wurtzel while reading Prozac Nation and it's the result of a bit of jealousy, annoyance, and boredom. It's true that I did nod of a bit during some sections of this book. I had it out for her from the start though. One such offense is she went to Harvard. It made me lose some faith in higher education. To be honest, I expected better writing from someone going to Harvard. Another thing, on the back it says she reads like a mixture of J.D. Salinger and Sylvia Plath. She doesn't. I argued with her in my head while reading this book and not just because I'm belligerent; she makes you angry.
Then I learn that she's aware of it. And it makes it a little less annoying since she was proving a point. Which would be I guess that depression isn't fun. I already knew that but I see why she wants to prove it's a horrible, boring, dreary thing. Because I always though that depression can create art, which it can and this book is a result. But she proves depression isn't as interesting as I previously thought. But I won't be reading it again. There's no poignant prose to go back to when I'm blue, and no profound insights which I was expecting. It did leave on a good note though, and the last two chapters are the most interesting which is why I didn't downright hate the book. By leaving on a good note I forget a little how bored and angry and disappointed I was with the book at times. And yes, as mentioned by a lot of reviewers, she does complain a lot. But that's depression. I was just disappointed because I wanted her to complain in a philosophical, thought provoking, touching upon genius way. Which is admittedly, a lot to expect. In short, I would have liked the book more if I hadn't expected so much of it.
Rating:
Summary: Gen-X Nation
Review: Wurtzel's stated intent is to give the reader an idea of what it is like to be with someone who is depressed, and this is her justification for endless tales of her symptoms: yes, then I was in the hospital AGAIN, etc. Some readers find this grating, as though Wurtzel has made her point once, and please, could she move on to something else. Personally, I found it interesting and revealing. No matter where she went, or what she was doing, or how much her friends cared about her, she still had those same old symptoms. That's clinical depression as opposed to someone who is in a difficult situation and therefore feeling lousy. She needs to make this abundantly clear, because the final point, and the justification for her book's title, depends on the reader understanding the depth and breadth of her depression, and the etiology of it-- or lack of a clear cause, if that is a better way to put it. Wurtzel is not unhappy because her parents are divorcing, or because she was forced to go summer after summer to camps she hated, or because she disliked her afterschool program, or because high school was difficult for her academically (it wasn't). She's just depressed because there's something about Elizabeth Wurtzel that is bound to be depressed. This leads into her late stated thesis: Prozac, and drugs like it are the Philosopher's Stone for people with this kind of ontological depression. But everyone seems to be taking something for the mildest and most transient of melancholias. Prozac has almost become a by-word for something doctors throw at hypochondriacs to make them go away. So the same drug that saved Wurtzel's life was becoming something that cheapened her real disease, and caused people to whisper "she really could just shake it off, but she's taking the easy way out." Before Wurtzel brings Prozac into the story, she desperately wants to show the reader that if it were merely a question of shaking it off, there would be no book. Personally, I found her narrative voice pleasantly engaging, but I will admit that it is distinctively marked by her generation, to which I also belong. Her words rang in my head like conversation with a good friend. Someone much older or younger might have difficulty engaging with the narrative. This question of the narrative voice may date the book eventually, but then so will the whole subject of Prozac and its over or under prescription, so I don't think it is a criticism to observe that Wurtzel chose to use such a marked writing style. Whether one has been through depression or not, this book is fascinating. It's a trip through a generation growing up, through Jewish camps and Hebrew school for those who remember them, and depression for those who want comfort in company, or those who want to know more. I would recommend it to anyone.
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