Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Prozac Nation
Book Review: An atypical book dealing with depression
Summary: 5 Stars
My favorite classic would have to be The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath. For some reason, morbid books interest me. It's so sad but i love knowing that my life looks good compared to the book. i came across prozac nation by accident, i was perusing the shelves at a book store. Little did i know how incredible it would be. Elizabeth Wurtzel takes you through her life and makes it seem like you are there with her. One warning though-if you have depressive tendencies do not read this. I am not depressed at all, but there would be so many things that she said that i have thought myself or that were so true. After finishing the book, i sort of got a little depressed. Regardless though, this book is a must read. Especially if you are between the ages of 18-25Book Review: An extremely true book
Summary: 5 Stars
1. I am a reader and although the writing in this book is not worthy of 5 stars, I give it 5 stars for its amazing content. Wurtzel has put in words something that is almost impossible to describe.
2. Maybe its just me, but it seems like those who are affected by depression find this book phenomenal and those who aren't affected think the author is whiney. I fall into the former catagory and would just like to say that Wertzel's description is the best I've read/heard ever. She is so complete and thorough in her descriptions, they just took my breath away. There is so much truth in this book. It is a glimmer of hope and comfort for those suffering from mental illness.
Book Review: An honest, very human book.
Summary: 5 Stars
I should clarify a few things about this book before going into it.1. The title is deceptive, it has very little to do with Prozac or the American anti-depressant culture until the epilogue.
2. I dislike most of Elizabeth Wurtzel's other work and critical essays.
3. It's a memoir that simply writes itself from the mind of a person. It does a decent job of not assigning blame to anything, but it's descriptions and thoughts are simply an honest recount of a persons mind. It's not really an objective critique, so if it seems a little self absorbed at times, that's because it is. Sometimes it will elicit contempt for the author rather than sympathy. It's supposed to. If that stuff bothers you, I would avoid the book. You will hate it. I give it 5 stars only to people who would like it's context.
That said, I loved this book. It is a facinating insight into the human psyche and a very honest description of the way a clincally depressed person feels and interacts with the world. It is an excellent template for understanding the continuum on which the human brain operates, from rational control over one's ideas and emotions to total loss of that control.
More importantly it is an internal portrait of depression that transends outside description. It doesn't make much sense at times. Neither does the human brain. And so this book is a portrait of part of what it means to be human. I don't think that Elizabeth Wurtzel liked the person she was at that time any more than the reader, but it is, none the less, important that we understand who and why she was that person. Poignant and facinating.
Book Review: An intense look at the mind of the severely depressed
Summary: 4 Stars
In Prozac Nation Elizabeth Wurtzel shares her experiences as a depressed adolescent growing into a chronically depressed young adult. She captures the roller coaster of emotions she undertakes as she trifles through her life of obstacles starting with the divorce of her parents, on into her education at Harvard University. She documents her experiments with illegal substances and members of the opposite sex. A must read for anyone who has suffered themselves, or, has watched loved ones suffer from the effects of chronic depression.Book Review: Angry-making and inauthentic
Summary: 2 Stars
I was deeply aggrivated and annoyed by 'Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir', in which Elizabeth Wurtzel claims to speak for an entire disaffected nation when she is only embarassing herself. Though I am the first to understand that those with depression deserve allowances, Wurtzel STILL strikes me as immature, petulant, and bogusly self-mythologizing. The book feels like it was written the night before in a desperate attempt to BS the teacher.
There are many memoirs of depression I'd recommend instead. A classic is William Styron's 'Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness'; I myself didn't like it that much, but I read it ten years ago, and Styron is a very famous writer, and it is widely beloved. If you'd prefer the story of someone young at the time of suffering, I was deeply moved by Susanna Kaysen's 'Girl, Interrupted', her story of her time in McLean mental hospital in Massachusetts. It described the feeling of time slowing down, something I didn't think could be put into words. It's also excellent on the stigma that patients suffer. Don't think less of it because it was made into a movie. Finally, I recently read Sylvia Plath's novelization of her own depression, "The Bell Jar," and it's great, and has been important to generations of depressed girls.