Rating: 
Summary: Poor spokeswomen for bipolar disorder.
Review: I am a 26 year old writer who has been living with Bipolar Disorder for 12 years. I actually saw Lizzie Simon speak at a Bipolar benefit, and was very excited to read her book. In her talk, she described her ups and downs with bipolar disorder, in a way that made me think she was someone I could relate to.
When I read her book, I was extremely disapointed. This benefit, which was hosted by DBSA.org, glorified her as if she was *the* spokeswomen for the disorder. Her book basically talks about how she had one manic episode and suddenly self-titled herself an expert. It's also very apparent that she's a Kurt Vonnegut fan, as she copies his style of writing through the entire book. As someone who suffers from a severe mental disorder, I could not relate to a girl who had her entire life handed to her on a silver platter. Just because her parents gave her the money to go on a road trip, and let her borrow their car, does not make her any sort of genius. She did not go through half of the difficulties with doctors, medication, and day to day life that the average person with bipolar disorder goes through.
Rating: 
Summary: "Detour" a critical insight for all.
Review: I am a physician and recently suggested Lizzie Simon's book to by book club, a group of eight woman physicians. "Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D" got strong positive reviews and everyone acknowledged new insight into living with this tough disease. This was the first book that I suggested to this tough group of critics that they actually liked! As a physician, I feel that reading Ms Simon's book would benefit all health professionals at any level and lead to fewer missed diagnoses and more compassionate understanding for patients trying to cope with this complex disease!
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the reviews say. . . . .
Review: I picked up this book about 1 1/2 years ago thinking that I'd find something that I could relate to, as I'm a 30 bipolar woman. Unfortunately, I could not relate to Lizzie Simon. She is elitist and she is very self-congratulatory. It is so embarrassing to read about her relationship with Nicholas, and somehow she thinks that she's the only one who could understand him. He can't understand himself!!! Needless to say, I don't understand what all the hype is when reading this book. I think there are plenty of people out there who have written excellent books on their struggles with mental illness (i.e Kay Redfield Jamison, William Styron). This book, though entertaining, is very base.
Rating:
Summary: Want More in a Good Way
Review: I usually have a difficult time keeping focused while reading but found myself at the end of this book in 2 short days! I found the page layout to be easy to read. It keeps the reader's attention focused. What may have started out as a great bipolar idea to take a journey and write a book about it became more a learning tool for life. Lizzie Simon takes us on her journey to find her sense of belonging to the group of people that have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She only wants to interview young successful bipolar because she is afraid that she will lose her success due to this illness. She is afraid that she will give up on herself at some time in her life. Lizzie Simon gives us a glimpse into the struggle that bipolar people go through to find their way. She comes across as a know-it-all at times but proves that she is on a journey like all people. She makes mistakes too. She talks about her inability to believe alternative treatments but at the same time drinks alcohol while taking lithium.
I agree with Lizzie about learning all you can about what it means to be bipolar. This book should be a definately recommend for all mental health professional's reading lists. I got more out of this book as compared to Kay Redfield Jamison's "An Unquiet Mind". I found that book slow and it skirted around emotional issues more than Lizzie Simon's book. I have been looking for a book like this for some time now. Like a bipolar person, it still feels like there are things or issues not said. Leaves you wanting more in a good way!
Rating:
Summary: Mental Health Worker Recommends This Book To Everyone
Review: I worked and volunteered with youth in Colorado for over two years. Some of my young clients were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Many of my colleagues worked with bipolar kids as well. Frequently I was challenged to provide resources to a bipolar client, their family members, the community as a whole and other professionals. Ms. Simon's book is at the absolute top of my list as a resource for all those folks. This young woman's writing details her search for herself in the face of a complex, cloudy and potentially crippling disease. Her insights are uncannily accurate as other young bipolars have revealed similar experiences to me, and my colleagues, as well. Ms. Simon's writing is a documented inspiration for the thousands of young people who are struggling with the disorder. I imagine many of my former clients benefitting greatly from this young woman's search for a piece of sanity in a world that stigmatizes this and other mental health disorders. I have no doubt that it provides insight for the many people that love and care for someone with the disorder as well. I recommend this book to everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite entertaining and original
Review: Lizzie has written a memorable book that probably will appeal most to young people afflicted with bipolar disorder or some other mental illness. Is she a voice for her generation? Yes, or at least more so than Elizabeth Wurtzel. I have but one point of contention with Lizzie- this search for "successful" people with bipolar disorder seems a little off the mark. I realize finding people who are bipolar and successful can serve as a source of hope for those who are not (yet) successful, but perhaps it would have been more compelling to seek out bipolar individuals of all types, regardless of their degree of success. Overall though, this is a very good book, Lizzie is an excellent writer, and I believe she has broken new ground in the genre of mental illness narratives. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
Rating:
Summary: Timely first person account of life with bipolar illness
Review: Lizzie Simon writes movingly about her struggles with bipolar illness. This book should receive plenty of attention, since more and more children and teens are being diagnosed with the condition and yet there are relatively few good first person accounts out there. This book is the best I've read so far amd a must for anyone wanting to know more about what it is like to deal with the challenges of handling the ups and downs of being bipolar.
The wrong meds can be harmful or even disastrous for bipolar individuals, especially some of the drugs routinely prescirbed for ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder (some bipolars are mistakenly diagnosed as ADD). One of Simon's episodes, in fact, was triggered when she was given an inappropriate medication, setting her off on a frenzy of hallucinations, delusions and outright pyschotic episodes. But within days of getting on the right meds, she was rational and much more in control of herself. Simon's riveting account of this period in her life underscores the importance of proper diagnosis and medication for those with bipolar illness.
Another plus of this book: Simon met and interviewed about other people with bipolar illness and shares the info here, revealing the range of personalities and individuals who have it.
I found Detour to be an inspiring, educational and very moving book - honest without being overly dramatic or hokey.
Rating:
Summary: Pulls All the Punches...
Review: Thanks, Ms. Simon! Growing up not with bipolar, but with a family tree whose history is all over the block (anxiety disorders, clinical depression, schizophrenia, agoraphobia, alcohol addiction), I commend her for writing so honestly and openly about living with a 'mental disorder', which still relates as 'crazy' to most of the modern, supposedly more enlightened world. In this quick, nicely written work, she relates what it's like to be first lost, then wildly successful, then lost again...finally on a journey to find her 'herd'...and I have felt this so many times over, feeling the affects of my family history, feeling 'lost' without that herd...Lizzie, to our, or (my own personal) benefit, realizes at the end that the 'herd' is 'her' without the 'd'...one's struggle to realize one's own destiny and come to grips with one's own self. I commend her for this brave account...she may be seen as 'self-indulgent', as many have branded Kay Redfield-Jamison (I've read both 'An Unquiet Mind' and 'Night Falls Fast'), but I say it's not self-indulgent, just the truth, raw and real. I only know one bipolar, and he's one of the most bright, intelligent persons I know...I think that if genetic research 'wiped out' the 'mental disorders' as we know them, that some of the most special, creative and brightest persons we know on this planet would not exist...and although mental illness places a great toll on families, on individuals, on society, as Lizzie explains her troubles with her families and relationships with other, the world would be a rather bland place without their insight. I think the great Abraham Lincoln (known to suffer black moods himself) once said something to the same effect. Suffer kindly your 'fools', your 'drunkards', your 'crazies'...they just might change the world.
Rating:
Summary: Detour
Review: This book really opened my eyes to see myself more clearly. I am bipolar and Lizzie Simon did an excellent job of helping bipolar people understand themselves. My parents and several friends also read this book and found it fascinating. This should be the instruction manual that is handed to bipolars once they are disgnosed. I personally thanked Lizzie for her beautiful insight into the mind of a successful bipolar person. This book is one in a million. Thanks Lizzie!
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age
Review: This is a coming of age book if there ever was one. Throughout the book, Lizzie talks to the reader, reminding us that she is an idealistic, talented girl. I get the impression she was looking at one of her journals that she references frequently and thought "I could publish this and be a star." I would add to this book a foreword by someone in the medical profession to provide the disclaimer that this is Lizzie's opinion of the bipolar affective disorder and that it is not a dummies guide to bipolar. My critque is in Lizzie's self-character development. The whole business of drive around in Daddy's SUV and interview Daddy's friends' patients was basically meaningless. Just statistics. Perhaps a collection of essays by people would have been better. Her relationship with a unstable person could have been expanded on to much benefit. This is why I term this book 'coming of age.' Her discovery that she can't make herself better by giving it all to someone who is worse of than her is a critical point for the mentally ill, drug addicted, etc. In her emphasis to find her clique, er, herd, she realizes the illness does not define her. I am suspecting that Detour 2 will have more insights as Lizzie grows beyond her ivory tower, so to speak. This said, the book is a quick, fast read. I see it as breaking new ground and hope there will be some books or essays available that are not written by celebrities (Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher) or rich white girls (Lizzie Simon), but instead from the perspective of one of the many average yet function mentally ill. I think it is an excellent book for anyone looking to get a anectdotal information on manic-depresson or who enjoys the coming of age genre. Lizzie Simon deserves praise for sharing her coming of age as a bipolar kid story. She also deserves praise for taking on the role of spokesperson of the young to this important issue. Read the book, but take it with a grain of salt.
|
