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Summary: A Soul Laid Open
Review: Amazing what kind of strength William Styron had to muster to open his life up enough to write about such a personal illness...and one with such stigmas and opinions attached to it!This book is beautifully written and has touched so close to home for me personally. I couldn't have put the experience of depression into better words if I tried. I would recommend this book to people who suffer from depression or to their loved ones. It's a very enlightening and informational essay.
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Summary: Darkness Visible
Review: The book I read is called Darkness Visible by William Styron. The book is a compelling story about a man who, in 1985, gets a crippling disease. At the same time he's trying to receive an award. I enjoyed this book very much. It gives good infomation about depression,a disease thet affects millions of Americans. It doesn't have lots of action, but the book overall is a great book to read.
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Summary: A little disappointing
Review: After all the hype I'd heard about "Darkness Visible", I found it a bit disappointing. Styron is clearly a great writer- few would dispute that. Nonetheless, I found his description of the subjective feeling and experience of depression to be somewhat lacking. Of course, it's very difficult to describe any subjective mental state, but nonetheless I didn't find his attempt too compelling. On the other hand, the book is very well-written and stylistically pleasing. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
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Summary: Very comforting in a strange way
Review: I inherited a depressive brain chemistry and have suffered from depression for as long as I can remember. Not until I read this book have I been able to articulate my feelings to others. This book contains the best description of depression I've ever read. It makes the point that it's a disease that society must take seriously, and that thoughts of suicide shouldn't be a taboo subject. I found it to be strangely comforting to read. If you suffer from depression, or know a friend or family member who does, then I can't recommend this informative book enough as it'll be time very well-spent. This illuminating 80-page essay will greatly enhance your understanding of melancholia. If you are trying to support someone who is depressed but don't know through experience how bad it can be, this will help you.
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Summary: Lie Down in Darkness revealed
Review: Back in highschool, I was assigned to read Styron's novel 'Lie Down in Darkness.' I found it strangely moving, and it stayed with me. Now I see the background for some of the power in that novel revealed in the author's personal account of darkness, depression. This book is a great writer telling great personal truths. After you read it, you might want to read or re-read his novel too.
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Summary: Harrowing View of What Many People Can't Express
Review: I read the whole book yesterday and found a lot that I could realate to. I never been a drinker, but I can understand how it could be used to mask a serious condition for many years. I do think that Styron places too much of the blame on Halcion, but this may be a defense to deflect some of the blame to something external to himself. In all though his description of the downward spiral and the symptoms that accompany it were dead on to my own experience and also his comments about how people who have never exeperienced this kind of depression look on you as haveing somehow failed morally or mentally by allowing such severe depression were also dead on. A great book for anyone who wants to understand what severe depression is really like.
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Summary: briefly, excellent.
Review: I'll keep this review as short and sweet as the item. This 85-page book, now twelve years old, is still unmatched in its brevity (contrast with Solomon's "Noonday Demon," at over 400 pages), its bravery, and its straightforwardness (contrast with Moody's "The Dark Veil"). It takes less than an hour to read. If you have depression, or would like to know more about how it affects those who have it, start with this book. I had seen Mr. Styron speak about this illness at a recent DRADA conference at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and he is very articulate about his experiences. Highly recommended, especially for fellow sufferers.
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Summary: A creative understanding of depression
Review: Depression does not discriminate. It can creep into anyone's life. No one is safe from suffering a bout of the deep darkness depression can bring. William Styron has shown a spotlight on all the confusion engulfing depression. Thanks for the honesty it took to write this book
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Summary: Review of Darkness Visible
Review: The best description of endogenous depression extant. As a psychologist, I am constantly recommending it to patients and friends.
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Summary: Darkness In Brief
Review: It's hard to imagine that someone like William Styron with so much talent and so much to live for could succumb to such a life-shattering clinical depression.Yet nonetheless, he did at the age of sixty, and in this brief 80 page memoir he entails how it was that he came to be depressed, how he endured it, and how he came through and reemerged from it. He also manages to do so with a brief intensity, without dwelling on how the world had "wronged" him or on how tough it is to be a writer-celebrity or bragging about all his achievements. Styron writes with a confidence and deftness which does not attempt false modesty or give us overbearing or pointlessly shocking revelations. The book starts out rather slow with a trip to Paris to accept a prestigious writing award, and at first I was not crazy about it. Yet soon I found myself thoroughly engrossed and liking it in spite of myself. While he does not fully analyze the causes of depression, I don't think that was his intention in writing this book. He also does not take time to explore casual aspects of this life and seems to obliterate the myth that all memoirs are egocentric. Perhaps what I liked most was William Styron's insistence that while he does not blame others for depression, nor is it the victim's fault, and that suicide is not a cop-out or something to be disguised by relatives, but the tragic outcome of a crippling illness. I don't think that I will be reading another memoir by Styron simply because I don't think he meant for this book to be a display of his life to the public. What I do hope for is another memoir on depression that is written with his skill and mastery of the English language.
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