Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir

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Summary: I Loved it!
Review: This book was absolutely amazing. You should deffinetly read it if you are depressed or if you know someone close to you who is. It will make you have a new respect for that person or understand yourself better.

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Summary: Author Bio
Review: Elizabeth Wurtzel graduated from Harvard College, where she received the 1986 Rolling Stone College Journalism Award for essay writing. She was the popular -music critic for The New Yorker and New York magazine. Her articles have also appeared in Mademoiselle, Mirabella, Seventeen, and The Oxford American. She lives in New York City.

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Summary: Reviews
Review: "In punchy, sexy prose, Elizabeth Wurtzel plummets you into the darkness of her innermost experience to emerge once again into medicine, daylight, insight. Whatever you are doing, this book may make you abandon it." -Melanie Thernstrom, author of The Dead Girl

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Summary: Annotation
Review: Prozac Nation is the harrowing yet hilarious memoir of one woman's struggle with depression, how she survived and her determination to get off medication and lead a life worth living. Elizabeth Wurtzel, whose powerful writing style seems to be an amalgam of Nirvana, Joni Mitchell, and Dorothy Parker, gives voice to a generation of young people who have grown up in a culture of divorce, economic instability and AIDS.

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Summary: prozac filtration
Review: i think that this book could have been done a lot better. it was put together a bit sloppily, but it is a memoir, and if i am going to read something like that, i guess i can't judge too harshly. the parts in the book when the girl breaks down are good, it reminds me or myself and kc. but, otherwise it is slow and it feels like a tedious task. borrow it from a friend if you are desperate but don't buy it.

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Summary: title is misleading,only last chapter deals with prozac
Review: why is this book called prozac nation? it would have made more sense if the book was called depressed and young in america. the entire book is about her depression until the last chapter when she finally takes prozac. this book was a trip into true life depression and i feel for the author. though i'd like more chapters dedicated to her recovery and her transition back to life without depression. that would have given me some closure,but the ending just left me wondering how she is dealing without depression.

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Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This book by Ms. Wurtzel has offered me hope. As a sufferer of depression, I am able to relate to many parts of this story. It has made me feel less alone and I would recommend that everyone, regardless of their state of mind, read this book. It offers an insight that the best doctor in the world could not do. Thanks Elizabeth.

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Summary: Amazing
Review: I finished reading Prozac Nation a few days ago, and Elizabeth's words are still echoing in my head. She suffered for so many years, until people finally began to take her disease seriously. It angers me how the world used to be (and still is) so quick to dismiss depression as just some passing emotion. IT'S NOT. This is a serious illness, and while I don't favor the drugs in the market for it, they really have seemed to help the author, quite literally saving her life. Elizabeth's candid, no-holds-barred memoir really spoke to me, showing me the darker side of suicide, and I just wanted to reach out to her, giver her a hug, and tell her that I knew exactly how she felt. This book should be read by anyone trying to gain a deeper understanding of depression, and ESPECIALLY if they suffer from it as well.

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Summary: a look into the mind of a depressed person
Review: "That's the thing I want to make clear about depression: It's got nothing to do with life. In the course of life, there is sadness and pain and sorrow, all of which, in their right time and season, are normal- unpleasant, but normal. Depression is in an altogether different zone because it involves a complete absence: absence of affect, absence of feeling, absence of response, absence of interest".(taken from the first chapter of Prozac Nation, 'Full of Promise'). I finished reading Prozac Nation a couple of days ago & it's still on my mind. The first thing someone would think after finishing this book is "how self absorbed can this girl be?". But that's exactly the point! Depression brings so much pain or even worse, absence of feeling to the person who suffers..that sometimes there is no room for anything else than the pain. The thing any depressed person wishes is for this intensity of feeling to end, for the chance to spend energy on others, to turn your eyes away from yourself. Elizabeth Wurtzel is very succesful in describing what goes on exactly in the mind of a truly depressed person. Whatever the reasons that brought you there depression is an illness & a very tough one to recover from & Wurtzel does a very good job of explaining her own fight with depression, without putting blame on anyone in particular, understanding that the exact same circumstances may lead one person to depression and the next person to a happy, fullfilled life.

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Summary: Helpful, Informative and Real.
Review: This book is a true-life, no BS real story about one woman's struggle with a less well known type of depression. There is no literary climax at the end, and it does not end in suicide, but it is so truthful that it hurts. Excellent reading for anyone who has even had to deal with any type of depression within their circle of friends, family or within themselves. This break through book can help people understand depression, and if more people read this, the world would be an easier place for people with depression to manage.