Wasted and Mad
Jun 12 2008 | Comments 7
Marya Hornbacher, who last wrote about suffering with an eating disorder, has now published another book — this time on living with bipolar disorder. I’m working on my own memoir now (or working on thinking about working on it), so I understand the urge to purge (metaphorically) in print. But something about writing multiple accounts of multiple disorders kind of makes me queasy. Augusten Burroughs did is quite deftly, I thought, and perhaps Hornbacher has pulled it off as well.
It seems Hornbacher, like many other chroniclers of bipolar disorder, struggles primarily with mania. Stay tuned for my book, which is going to be called: Rarely Manic, But Depressed As Shit.
liz | 2:42 PM | Uncategorized
this is not a comment but might interest you anyway
http://terenceboal.blogspot.com/search?q=shyness
I look forward to your book.
There are enough books about mania being the main problem, but for those of us who experience far, FAR, more depression than mania, there is next to nothing. Actually, nothing that I can think of.
Love the title…
I’ve read both, and I actually found Madness to be a fantastic effort. Enormously unsettling, but I think that was the point. It was less of a purge than Wasted, and more of a book with a purpose. (The fact that she clearly grew as a writer during the intervening years didn’t hurt.) Seriously, go give it a read. She’s a little more rah-rah about medicine than I’d like generally speaking, but when one takes into account her experience, it makes perfect sense. I don’t think Hornbacher’s ever had a mild version of anything.
Well I’m in for that book!!
I am interested in how one can be bipolar and not experience the manias (without antidepressants).
When you do write the book, please give it that exact title. It’s perfect.
having read both of Marya Hornbacher’s memoirs, I can say that her latest, Madness, is a really articulate and moving account of her struggle with bipolar. I enjoyed (if that’s the right word) this one even more than Wasted.
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