Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir

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Summary: The thing about this book is...
Review: Elizabeth Wurtzel has a way of communicating via her writing more beautifully and effectively than anyone I have ever read. Her words are targeted like an arrow that never misses, a critique that drives to the core of the fault. She always seems to have the right phrase; the EXACT wording needed to make her point like no one I've ever read.

Is it whiny? Sometimes. Is it occasionally painful to read? Yes. Is she brutally honest about what an awful wretch she could be? Guilty there, too. But she is also an AMAZING writer, perhaps the finest at constructing and communicating the powerful thoughts and feelings she endured during her depression.

Is she's whiny, it's because depression makes people whiny, depsite their best efforts. If she's hopeless it's only because that's the reality of deep sustained misery with no hope in sight. Read the book and Elizabeth Wurtzel will show you better than anyone else what it is like to helplessly feel your world collapse around you.

This book made her a literary legend; my recommendation is to read it and discover why.

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Summary: Dear reader from Tucson:
Review: You obviously have never been severely depressed, nor know anyone who has. As someone who currently types this with a cut on her wrist from a razor blade, I wish more people read this book and took the time to understand that this really is how depressed people feel. This book is fully representative of depression. There are times when it is so difficult to get up in the morning, let alone go about the day with a smile on your face, that it makes one want to entirely give up. So am I a terrible person for feeling sad about my state? For feeling awful about seeing my family's pain in helping me? Many depressed people, myself included, read every self-book they can, take anti-depressants, go to therapy regularly, and are trying AS HARD AS THEY CAN to get back to a normal life. Depression is not easy to deal with, as the person herself or as a family member/friend. So reader in Tucson, may I suggest you read this book again with a little sympathy and a much more open mind?

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Summary: helpful to a parent
Review: As a parent, and as a teacher, it is continually disturbing to see the growth of depression-like illnesses. To me, this book helps gives me understanding, and perspective. It is one of a few on the topic I have obtained. I don't necessarily agree with all the authors views, but the topic is so disturbing even to professionals, I do recommend this for those in search of help.

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Summary: How can you hide from what never goes away?
Review: In 'Prozac Nation' Elizabeth Wurtzel charts her descent from a childhood which on the surface at least seemed to be full of promise, to her on-going battle against depression and her struggle for the 'normality' of an adult life without pills. The book takes us from Wurtzel's early dysfunctional family life and first suicide attempt at the age of twelve, to her time writing for the New Yorker. Wurtzel steers her way through years of alternating depression and mania, all of which eventually leads to her being one of the first people to be prescribed the now ubiquitous Prozac.

Although the blurb on the ... UK paperback copy claims the work to be 'completely compelling', the two word which most readily spring to mind are in fact 'repetitive' and 'irritating'. However, as Wurtzel herself states, if the book does inspire anger and annoyance, then she's succeeded in getting across to the reader some of the problems of dealing with a depressive. Nevertheless, I couldn't help wondering what real benefit depressives and their families would take away from the book.

Furthermore, whilst 'Prozac Nation' is often tagged with the label 'controversial' this is rather misleading. The book is only controversial if you have either no experience of depression yourself or have no contact with anybody who suffers from the illness. Perhaps the true nature of the controversy lies in the rejection of the American consumer dream since Wurtzel herself says, 'happiness is not about stuff'.

Overall, I found the most rewarding sections of the book to be the epilogue and the afterword ... Indeed, I found these to be the saving grace of the book. Here Wurtzel stops whining and becomes instantly more readable, interesting and intelligent. Her examination of the birth of a 'Prozac Nation' and the effect of the mainstreaming of the 'culture of depression' into society are thoughtful. Furthermore, the argument that the media circus which surrounds Prozac has trivialised depression and deterred it use by the people it really could benefit is apt. Also the image of Prozac as the ultimate 'Happy Pill' is questioned; Wurtzel herself still needs a cocktail of prescribed drugs alongside Prozac to maintain her balancing act.

Whilst I fail to see what real help and support 'Prozac Nation' can offer to sufferers and their families it does, however achieve what Wurtzel states she intended to do: it is a personal book about depression, which is written 'like rock 'n' roll'.

All quotes taken from, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation, Young and Depressed in America, a Memoir ...

Rating:
Summary: Good at first, then drags
Review: I liked the book initially, but then got really bored with it about the time she's attending Harvard. It really just became repetitious, and one page read like the next. Plus, there were a number of blatant inconsistancies. First, she talks about how she started cutting school and flunking in her preteen years. Then voila, here we are at Harvard. High school has been omitted. What happened? Did her depression and insanity leave her for the four years of high school, so she could make good grades and get into Harvard? We're never told what happened--it's a complete omission, which makes me a little suspicious, to put it mildly. Second, she's constantly complaining that she has no money. Duh, private school, then Harvard, then she just jets to Dallas, LA, or whereever, anytime she feels like it. Who's paying for all this? Who's paying for Harvard? Her poverty stricken mother?

Somehow, the story just didn't seem right, taking into account these factors. And Wurtzel seemed to be more than just depressed. I noticed that she has written another book about her ritalin addiction. Whatever. I didn't finish the book, and donated to the library abroad a cruise ship.

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Summary: Pity me! Oh, please...
Review: Elizabeth Wurtzel's writing can, at best, be described as tragically poetic. At its worst, self-indulgent and obnoxious.

While the book itself contains a reasonable amount of analysis of one woman's struggle with depression, one walks away with a bad taste in one's mouth.

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Summary: Try "Darkness Visible" or "The Beast" instead.
Review: While Wurtzel does provide a couple relatively decent insights, this is a long drawn-out memoir about a manipulative, deceitful and narcissistic individual. While depression may be one component of her disease, her psychological problems are (or were) many and varied. Other human beings are only useful to her when they can provide drugs, money, sex, and a shoulder to cry on (which is every minute of every day). If they couldn't provide these things they they weren't worth knowing. People interested in learning more about depression should check out "Darkness Visible" by William Styron and "The Beast" by Tracy Thompson.

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Summary: socially aware
Review: Despite what others have said I do not find this book to be too self-aware and therefore difficult to read. Wurtzel encompases the social parameters of this disease into her understanding of depression in a very complimentary way. This is more than just an account of one girls despair. Wurtzel is very aware, very informed, and her account is very engaging. A must read.

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Summary: Breaking the Silent Mold
Review: Elizabeth Wurtzel has accomplished something I never even thought possible: to describe the terrifying impact depression has one one's life and to express the enormous pain accompanying the disease. I often had to set down the book to take a breather since her writing was so accurate in conveying her experiences with clinical depression, so similar to mine except I could not so skillfully put them into meaningful words. At the same time I was compelled to ready every word, at times painful, at other times comical, always truthful.

I'd read several works on the medical aspects of depression as well as some introductory texts, but none of them were as helpful in my personal understanding and struggle with depression than "Prozac Nation." This was the first time I could say, "Hey, that's how I felt" concerning depression. Years of therapy prove to me how difficult it is to express what happens when depression possesses you, and vice versa. Now I think I can speak to those around me, therapist or friend, with more confidence that what I go through may not make sense but is as real as everything else in my life.

Final note: For those who've read the hard cover edition, I also recommend reading the Afterword in the newer prints. Both the epilogue and the afterword allow for an even greater understanding of depression, which really is becoming something of a social phenomenon as well as an epidemic yet is painful all the same to those individuals who suffer from it.

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Summary: Absolutely Brilliant!
Review: Prozac Nation is a memoir about the author's life going through depression. It starts of early with her and continues on until college. At first she knows something is up, but depression never came to mind. As time goes on, she realizes her problem and goes through the struggle of being someone else, a deppression patient. Life goes on for her and this book has a great climax to it. I haven't read the first book by this author, but reading this book makes me want to.

Any teen or adult should pick up this book, it's very interesting and not to medical. It flows through and makes you want to read more and more. You'll be sad that it ended! Well, have fun reading.