Rating: 
Summary: A Personal Account of Depresssion for All Persons
Review: Powerful. This book is one of the best on depression I've come across, and I can't recommend it more highly. Those who suffer from depression will gasp at Solomon's ability to put into words feelings and emotions that are so difficult to depict. So moving, this book may cause even those with a "toughen up" mentality toward depression to think twice.
Rating: 
Summary: scary but good
Review: If you are going through a period of mild depression you might not want to read this book. A lot of the material in it is Terribly depressing. For longtime sufferers, people with depressed friends and family members and others interested in the subject it is a wonderful first person account on the subject. The author is one of the small percentage of depressed people who needs to stay completely on medication and needs constant readjusting of his doses. Fortunately this is not the case for most depressives. If you are looking for a more helpful book try "Undoing depression", but this book is a great look into the lives of the chronically depressed.
Rating:
Summary: Vastly Important / Vastly Overwritten
Review: I had to get ready for this book. I've dealt with medium-strength depression for most of my life and have been very closely affected by suicide, so I bought Solomon's book the first time I heard of it. However, I made the purchase a year ago and simply looked at this book sitting on my coffee table for an entire year before finally reading it. Apparently I had to make myself ready for it. This is an extremely important opus on depression from the point of view of the sufferer, as Solomon is, with the personal narratives interspersed with important scientific background that does not become didactic or professionally detached. Solomon's major achievement here is to illustrate how many forms depression takes and how many different types of people have to deal with the illness. It is both biological and psychological to varying degrees. We are unlikely to see a universal cure to an illness that has extremely personal causes and effects, no matter what the psychology or pharmaceutical establishments say. The problem with this book is that is badly overwritten and often extremely self-indulgent. Solomon has the habit of going on and on and on (and still on) about his own depressive episodes and breakdowns, especially in the interminable chapter 2. He frequently interrupts other less-personal portions of the book with more of the same, including chapters 8 and 10, which are otherwise interesting treatments of the history of scientific thought about depression and political attitudes toward treatment. Solomon has every right to tell his personal story, because it is the backbone of the book, but there is a fine line between self-awareness and self-absorption. One good side effect of depression is self-awareness, as you yearn to understand what's going on in your own mind. Believe me, I know. But Solomon has moved into pathological self-absorption and obsession, which are probably not helping his personal situation. Solomon's obsession with victimhood has a negative impact on large portions of this book. The same goes for many of his interview subjects. A related issue is Solomon's troubling pro-medication stance, as he has no trouble admitting (or bragging) that he takes 12 pills a day and may continue for the rest of his life. A general overall issue with this book is Solomon's longwinded overwriting, with no indication whatsoever of an editor. Simply piling on gigantic amounts of data and anecdotes do not necessarily strengthen points that were made more simply a long time before. Even with its many weaknesses, this is still an extremely important book, and may go a long way toward improving the public's perceptions of depression. But future editions would be very well served if they were significantly edited and condensed.
Rating:
Summary: What does it mean to treat depression?
Review: There is no getting around the fact that this is a deep, eloquent meditation on depression in our society. ... Solomon's major breakdown came after the death of his mother. His second came after a traumatic bodily injury. These circumstances, first of all, are somewhat beyond a person's control. Implying that taking "responsiblity" means not caring about a loved one's death seems to me rediculous. Furthermore, spending thousands of dollars on professional help seems like you are acknowledging a problem and you want to solve it.
Having said that, I agree that this book is not perfect. It subscribes to a kind of blind technological utopianism, and mythologizing. Solomon is the type who, for better or worse, views interfering with nature as something fundamental to human beings. As such, digging a hole in the ground and inserting mouse genes into strawberries are all part of human creativity and art. This strikes me as an extreme position, "man versus nature," but this issue requires another book to address it. Solomon takes this position throughout the book, and it is a bit annoying. ...
As a student of politics, Solomon's conservative and well-contextualized statistics on depression are staggering to me. In a way, he actually returns to the stoicism (which the reviewer chided him for lacking) by stressing how depression and mental suffering is the root of so many other diseases. For example, depression has doubled in America since WWII. It is becoming the disease of the 21st century. It is not depressing itself, and is surprisingly educating.
His attention to alternative treatments is a bit inconsistent. At time it reads like a news magazine trying to court pharmaceutical advertisers, with its claims that St. John's Wort is a "goopy" therapy to use. This seems odd considering that Solomon underwent treatments such as role playing, etc, which I think are fine but by his standard look silly. ... I think this book could have gone into more detail on prayer, Mindfulness meditation, yoga and so forth. This is also striking considering the fact that we got about 13 pages on electo-shock therapy, which very few people actually use. Solomon mentions faith, but that's about it.
In all, I really like this book. I think that Solomon really wants to find a cure for this disease. His great "psycho-social-biological" approach gives great evidence as to why depression requires a mix of social and chemical treatment. A wonderful book for our times.
Rating:
Summary: A depression masterpiece
Review: I feel "The Noonday Demon" lived up to the hype that several of my depressed friends gave it, in that it was absolutely thorough, quite insightful, and always interesting. Solomon clearly went to herculean lengths in compiling this book, and I believe it deserves the accolades it has received. My favorite line is, "Mood is like the climate, and emotions are like the weather." I really learned a lot reading this and would recommend it to anyone interested in depression. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
Rating: 
Summary: If you're not already depressed this book will get you there
Review: Solomon seems to enjoy wallowing in the misery of his own and others depression. With this book he has invited us all to join him. How this book won an award I have no idea. Solomon goes into the details of depression in excruciating detail but has nothing helpful to say. If you enjoy reading about things depressing, this is your book. If your looking for an understanding of depression or possible ways to get over it you should avoid reading this [stuff].
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Summary: The examined life
Review: There is little to add to the chorus of favorable reviews this book has received. Mr. Solomon explores every facet of his subject -- recounting his painful personal experience, summarizing the professional literature and surveying alternative treatments. Although pain is the most private of experiences, the growing volumes on depression invariably share essential elements. And, after a time, differences start to blur: What was distinctive about Solomon's depression vs. Martha Manning's vs. Styron's vs. Redfield Jamison's and so on? Yet it's safe to say that few have surveyed as much of this terrain as Solomon. From the intensely personal to the hopelessly ludicrous (he's been painted in blood rituals by the Lebou people of Senegal), one feels at the book's end that if Mr. Solomon didn't cover it then it can't be important. Not a quick read, but ultimately a rewarding one, for Solomon finds an important truth at the summit of his climb: for those who have faced the noonday demon, the unexamined life is not an option.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely wonderful
Review: A beautifully written, well organized work, that, like styron, explains the unexplainable. For those who have not suffered this dibilitating illness, provides a look into the hell that it is. For those that have and do suffer, provides welcome solice and hope.
Rating:
Summary: Right on the tenacity of negativity
Review: This book is a prime example of the new realistic trend in psychology. Realistic Psychology criticizes the one-sided optimism of the positive psychology movement. It is about real life and real people. The author's coverage of drug companies is particularly insightful. In an ironic way, the pharmaceutical companies making so much money off of depression are part of the problem -- even though some of us get real help from those meds, the companies are still part of the culture that has unleashed so much depression among us. For me, the first key step is to give up the fantasy that negativity will somehow disappear from my life if I just find the right tool. Now my favorite psychology book is The Positive Power of Negative Thinking by Dr. Norem, because my experience of the Noonday & anytime demon of depression is connected to my non-optimistic temperament. My temperament is not likely to change radically at this point, so worry, anxiety, and negativity are things I am learning to manage rather than to eliminate (wish away). The well written Noonday Demon is a book I recommend both to people who are depressed and to people who want to understand more deeply the depression in their friends, family, and society.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Attempt
Review: The book has great potential but somehow for me it misses the mark. I found Solomon's style excessively verbose. It wants to be a personal review of the authors personal experience and at the same time a major review of the understanding of depression - alas it doesn't quite do justice to either.
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