[e-mail]: A Medicated Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious comedy unflinchingly exposing its dark side
Review: Tom Grimes has a better handle on life as we are currently surviving it today than just about any author I have read. ...Through the means of a novel he is able to give insights on this point in history. Our submersion in the pavillion of our computer(s) as a means of programmed thinking and responding and communicating; our universal reliance on drugs (the prescribed versions) to balance our perceptions and reactions to the world out there; our numbed and dumbed response to other people and to events at large; our homogenous vocabulary populated with email-quality words, often not even spellchecked or proofread; our dreamscheme altered view of the future and the educational tools to get there in a hurry. Tom Grimes takes all of this potentially threatening view of present day reality and from it creates a comedy of 'epic' proportions. You find yourself laughing till tears flow on nearly every fast-paced page of this short book, marvelling how bright and informed and clever it is written, only to relax a moment and realize that from another vantage all of this 'truth' that seems so entertaining is SCARY! I think this author understands comedy so well that he has been able to create a very important book, an electron microscopic view of where we are and where that might just lead. And in addition to this gift, he has successfully created indelible characters with a story, taken on its own merit, that is a wholly satisfying novel. What wit, what insight, and what writing gifts are here! This is one fine new book. ...

Rating:
Summary: GET HAPPY!
Review: [...]
Granted, I've been wildly medicated. In my younger and more vulnerable years just before college, my mother hauled me out of bed where I'd taken to spending most of my time and took me to see a psychopharmacologist.

"What's wrong?" they asked.

"I guess I've kind of lost my faith in things," I said.

Ten seconds later I had a prescription for "The most popular antidepressant in the world." Plus, a little Lithium, to cap any manic phases that might arise.

Other than that, I don't suppose anyone wants to hear about my crappy childhood. All dysfunctional families are alike.

What's important is, I've been on a quest, at least I believe I've been on a quest, to stop the sickness. Information Sickness. People have died from it. They're still dying of it. I am dying of it. We all are.

But there's a cure. And I'm here online to tell you about it.

This is how this hilarious, literate novel begins, and having now read this book for the third time I can say with certainty that it is one of the best written, most enjoyable "quests" I've ever been on. It brings to mind DeLillo, Vonnegut, yes even Salinger. Truly an enjoyable, entertaining read. And I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Okay, yes [...]is also a website and this novel is what you might call a transcription of an online journal of an overmedicated (as in Prozac, Lithium, et al) "troubled" college freshman. Needless to say, as someone who has been prescribed such mood modifying/conditioning medications himself, beleaguered by corporate marketing posing as illuminating "information," I found this dizzying romp spot on. Buy this book and get happy!

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