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The Noonday Demon [Paperback]

Andrew Solomon (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (4 April 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099277131
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099277132
  • Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 3.7 x 20 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 14,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Book Description

This is set to be the most affecting, intelligent, important and constructive book on depression there has ever been - a key text for the new millennium by a New Yorker writer who has not only experienced the depths of depression but has researched every aspect of it.

Product Description

This extraordinarily moving, shocking and eye-opening work is set to become the classic text on the subject of depression, mental illness and the way we live now, for the literary market - the book that knocks even William Styron's Darkness Visible out of the water. Like Kay Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, it digs deep and painfully into personal experience, but it also looks at the much wider picture - the historical, social, biological, chemical, pharmaceutical and medical aspects and implications of the disease - broadening the scope immeasurably. What is crucial is that Solomon has not only experienced what he is writing about firsthand, and describes the experience from the inside terrifyingly and brilliantly, but also that he has researched ever aspect of depression, from the historical treatment and study of 'melancholy' as far back as the Greeks and Romans (who believed that cauliflower was good for depression), right through to the side effects of the pharmaceutical cocktails of the present day, case histories of people in and out of mental hospitals, faith healers, the power of suggestion, as well as the implications for the future of Western society. He also writes like a dream.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By A. Craig HALL OF FAME TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
As a novelist who has written a novel about manic depression, and suffered from the more commonplace sort, I can't recommend this book too highly. A remarkable blend of personal anecdote and meticulous, scholarly research it stands with Kay Redfield Jamieson's An Unquiet Mind as one of the great books on the subject. Solomon is never self-pitying, and though you may envy him the support given him (especially by his saintly father)this is an affliction that is so widespread and so often misdiagnosed or treated that a copy should be in every household. What is especially good is his attitude to drugs and therapy, both of which can be life-saving. A fine novelist, he has found a subject that his thoughtful, pellucid, sympathetic style shows to startling advantage.
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
The Noonday Demon 27 Aug 2002
Format:Paperback
A book that has both the insides and the outsides of its covers plastered with gushing reviews must have something good about it -- and this book does. It is fantastic, and deserves all the reviewers' hyperbole.

The book is the product of five years of research and 10,000 pages-worth of interviews alone. In addition, Solomon has suffered depression himself and is a novelist.

The book is certainly not a subjective account of depression. (For an interesting example of that genre see Gwynneth Lewis's recent "Sunbathing in the Rain.) It contains plenty of discussions stemming from statistics, and reports on recent scientific and psychological theories. It has a chapter devoted to the role depression might have in evolution; one on depression and poverty that has a distinctly sociological slant; one chapter that covers the history of medical treatment of depression. But it also contains a wealth of testimony from people who suffer from depression themselves -- as well as Solomon's own story, which is mostly told in two of the twelve chapters. (Around 30 people's stories are given in detail, mostly in their own words.)

I think this book is an excellent place to go to for someone who is interested in learning about depression -- not only about the science of it (what it does, how it can be treated, etc.) but also how it fits into people's lives: how they feel about it, how it came upon them, how they live with it. (For example, if you know someone who is depressed and can't understand why they don't just "snap out of it", or if you don't think it's serious enough to think about treatment -- or alternatively think that pills can cure them completely -- then this book may help you.)

I imagine that for anyone who has suffered from it, the accuracies of this book will trigger many memories of your own depression. (That may be a reason not to read it, if you do suffer from it. Gwynneth Lewis's book, by contrast, was written with the explicit aim of cheering and encouraging.) As I have been depressed, it was, I admit, sometimes a hard read: it is painful to be reminded of my unhappiness. But even so, I felt that the book has informed me. I knew that millions of Americans take Prozac, but I wasn't aware that depression can be classed as the second-biggest global health problem after hearth-disease. It changed some of my attitudes too, particularly my resistance to taking medication, which I now think was exaggeratedly fearful, and convinced me of the need to seek help of one sort or another for depression.

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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent read for anyone interested in depression, who has had it or is currently experiencing it, is caring for someone with it, or is studying mental health professionally. Although some of the medical facts and assumptions about religion are a bit misguided, the general facts in this book are correct and well presented. To give the author his due, what is factually wrong he is usually just giving an opinion on, so it is more acceptable to the reader.
It is also a very brave book as the author is painfully honest about his experiences, and this is a rarity in self-disclosure in mental health literature. All too often people will disclose what they want to, but this is a great example of a "warts and all" book.
I highly recommend this book as one of the best, if not THE best in the genre.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A book by a sufferer, for sufferers
The very first paragraph of this book hit me right between the eyes. Here was someone speaking my language, describing my world, but with an eloquence and precision I could never... Read more
Published 11 months ago by John Ferngrove
The Noonday Demon
I was recommended this book by a close friend. Although not suffering from depression myself , I have lived with someone who has bouts of clinical depression and I wamted to know... Read more
Published on 2 July 2009 by Aphra Benn
Dangerously subjective
This is only the second book I can ever remember refusing to finish, and I read voraciously. Halfway through this self-involved account by Solomon of his experince of severe... Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2009 by Jo Bennie
An excellent explanation
When I was first diagnose with acute and chronic depression I was recommended another book on depression which I attempted to read but found to well depressing. Read more
Published on 6 July 2007 by M. Bosman
Brilliant, depending on your point of view!
The first time I read this book it frightened me. The second time it had less of an effect. I read it as a sufferer firstly, the second time I read it as I am now, healthy. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2004
Comprehensive, if self-indulgent
I read this book at the beginning of my PhD studying depression and anxiety. Although the book is very large, I think it is well worth persisting with as it is one of the best... Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2003 by M. Nash
Positive and heartening
This striking book takes an in-depth, informative, no-holds barred look at an often-misunderstood condition affecting an ever-increasing proportion of our population. Read more
Published on 27 April 2003 by G. L. Haggett
Perceptive and insightful
A very readable, perceptive and insightful examination of a complex condition afflicting an ever-increasing number of people. Read more
Published on 7 April 2003
big dissapointment
This book was a very big dissapointment, mainly because it was completely subjective. Examples from the author's life and from people he has interviewed should have been used to... Read more
Published on 25 April 2002
compelling, moving, stunning writing
I've only read one chapter of this book so far, but think that it is incredible. Simply unputdownable, even if you have not been directly or indirectly affected by depression, this... Read more
Published on 8 April 2002
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