Review
: PROZAC NATION: Young and depressed in America by Elizabeth Wurtzel/Berkley
Don't be misled.
It's not just for the young and depressed in America. The symptoms of depression
are the same everywhere. In fact, the protagonist's story is synonymous with
many despondent teenagers or youths around us. Broken home, college life, sex,
drugs, alcohol, rock 'n' roll. The only distinction about her might be her status
as a Harvard student.
Delve into the
world of depression. Prepare to take a ride with Wurtzel down the spiral into
a realm of hopelessness, despair and misery. In her self-indulgent memoir, she
gives a literary voice to the unspeakable pain and gloom in a depressive experience
and how a mental and emotional struggle could wreck one's life and interpersonal
relationships. As you journey through her prolonged battle with breakdowns and
suicide attempts, Wurtzel's self-mutilating cuts hurt as if they are your own.
However, she does not leave her readers in the abyss. Her story of recovery
from the depths of hell living is an inspiration. Her climbing out of dysphoria
is an example of light at the end of the tunnel to all depressives.
For those who are
unencumbered with this psychological malady, this book will serve to be a wake
up call, alerting them of the existence of a party seeking to be empathized.
However for these people, the book's rants and raves might seem a bit too long-winded,
an effect that is larger than life, because listening to depressives are typically
straining.
Wurtzel also comments
on America and depression, and how Prozac is degenerating as a cliché
to the solution of problems, hence the title. Prozac Nation has recently been
released as a movie hit in the US, with Christina Ricci playing the role of
Wurtzel and Anne Heche as her psychiatrist.
"They will
have to rearrange the order of the cosmos, they would have to end the cold war,
they will have to act like loving, kind adults who care about each other, they
will have to cure something in Ethiopia and end the sex-slave trade in Thailand
and stop torture in Argentina. They will have to do more than they ever thought
they could if they want me to stay alive. They have no idea how much energy
and exasperation I am willing to suck of them until I feel better. I will drain
them and drown them until they know how little of me is left even after I've
taken everything they've got to give me because I hate them for not knowing"
-excerpt from Prozac Nation
