The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Author: Andrew Solomon
The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policy makers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Andrew Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications, the efficacy of alternative treatments, and the impact the malady has on various demographic populations -- around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by emerging biological explanations for mental illness. With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, award-winning author Solomon takes readers on a journey of incom-parable range and resonance into the most pervasive of family secrets. His contribution to our understanding not only of mental illness but also of the human condition is truly stunning.
Book Magazine
Few audiobooks impart the kind of gentle wisdom found throughout Solomon's National Book Award–winning tome on depression. Part memoir, part analysis, it describes Solomon's anguished battle with depression and examines the role this affliction has played through the ages. Solomon is a sincere and engaging reader who brings emotional shading to the material, and there is not one dry note. The only flaw worth mentioning is the abridgement: While nicely handled, it isn't necessary. Listeners may find themselves reaching for the printed book for more on this fascinating topic.
Publishers Weekly
Calling depression the "flaw of love," 2001 National Book Award-winner Solomon (A Stone Boat) brings a stunning breadth of research to this widely misunderstood and often stigmatized illness. At least 19 million Americans suffer from chronic depression, and Solomon concedes its diagnosis and treatment are as complex as the illness. The eloquent, cerebral prose distinguishing his book (the writing of which, he says, consumed his life for five years), is mirrored in Solomon's equally articulate and refined reading style, marked by traces of a crisp British accent and a consistent, soothing tone. While outlining the major treatments, Solomon's discussion covers brain chemistry, the classes of antidepressants and their possible effects and efficacy rates, as well as the successful resurgence of electroshock therapy, talk therapy, surgical options and alternative therapies (e.g., herbal, homeopathic and hypnosis). Some laypersons may find the audio format ill-adapted for this technical portion. However, Solomon's unequivocal candor about his own at times incapacitating struggle with depression, and the compassionate, hopeful perspective he conveys more than makes up for this. Loaded with personal anecdotes, snippets of letters, interviews and recalled conversations with fellow sufferers, this audio creates a sense of intimacy many listeners may find therapeutic. Based on the Scribner hardcover (Forecasts, May 14, 2001). (Feb.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In addition to the self-help and parental advice genres is the literary and philosophical study of depression that harks back to Richard Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy. The Noonday Demon, based on an article that Solomon wrote for The New Yorker in 1998, is such a book. The backbone of this superb work is the author's narrative of his own struggles with severe depression--his musings on its multifarious causes and on the role that his privileged socioeconomic status has played in its successful management. Solomon also interviewed scores of other depression sufferers about their trials with treatment and visited Africa, Greenland, and Cambodia in search of different cultural perspectives. This journalistic approach allows Solomon to convey a great deal of information in the form of fascinating, if sometimes horrific, life stories. This compassionate work that never simplifies complex matters is essential for all collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A reader's guide to depression, hopelessly bleak yet heartbreakingly real. In this massive tome, Solomon (A Stone Boat) confronts the terrors of depression with a breadth both panoramic and precise. The 12 tersely titled chapters ("Depression," "Breakdowns," "Treatments," "Alternatives," "Populations," "Addiction," "Suicide," "History," "Poverty," "Politics," "Evolution," and "Hope") address with spectacular clarity the ways in which depression steals lives away, leaving its prey bereft of their very selves. Despite the occasional cliché ("Life is fraught with sorrows") and heavy metaphor ("Grief is a humble angel"), Solomon's prose illuminates a dark topic through the unfolding tales of his sources and his own life story; by allowing the voices of those who battle depression to speak, rich and varied pictures of daily struggle, defeat, and triumph ultimately emerge. The author deserves kudos as well both for the geographical span of his account (which ranges from Senegal to Greenland) and for its historical sweep (which begins with Hippocrates and continues to the present). Paradoxically, the completeness of Solomon's vision undermines his readability: so much suffering fills these pages that, at times, it's all a bit too much darkness. (The gruesome litany of suicide techniques, for example, seems gratuitous.) Nevertheless, the importance of the work becomes virtually self-evident when Solomon addresses such topics as the cultural denial of depression, masculine fears of seeking treatment, strengths and weaknesses of various treatments, the salutary effect of diet and exercise on depression, the high cost of treatment, and chronic depression among the elderly. Fortunately the final chapter is "Hope"—for the reader will certainly be in need of some after the marathon of gloom. So good, so vitally important, but so . . . depressing.
Table of Contents:
| A Note on Method | 11 | |
| I | Depression | 15 |
| II | Breakdowns | 39 |
| III | Treatments | 101 |
| IV | Alternatives | 135 |
| V | Populations | 173 |
| VI | Addiction | 217 |
| VII | Suicide | 243 |
| VIII | History | 285 |
| IX | Poverty | 335 |
| X | Politics | 361 |
| XI | Evolution | 401 |
| XII | Hope | 421 |
| Notes | 445 | |
| Bibliography | 501 | |
| Acknowledgments | 537 | |
| Index | 541 |
Interesting book: Baking Boot Camp or Wine Avenger
The Easy GL Diet Handbook
Author: Fedon Alexander Lindberg
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a highly acclaimed route to weight loss, but it has one big drawback: GI values don't take portion sizes into account. Glycemic Load (GL) values ajust the GI score for real-world portions and thus give a more accurate measure of the way carbohydrates affect the body.
For example, fresh fruit seems like a healthier dessert than a Snickers candy bar, but, in fact, the GI score for apricots is 57, while a Snickers is only 55. This happens because the GI score is computed based on a serving of apricots that is over 7 times the size of the candy bar. When adjusted to the real-world serving size, the candy bar has a GL of 31, while the apricot's GL value is only 4.
Using these more accurate and sensible GL scores, the Easy GL Diet Handbook offers a plan for healthy weight loss and reduced risk of diabetes that is easier to follow and includes numerous foods that the Atkins, South Beach and GI diets wrongly consider "off limits."
