Rated of 5
by Barbara F. (Saint Louis, MO) People Always Remember The Way You Make Them Feel
This memoir is an extremely honest portrayal of a profoundly serious mental illness which continued for David from young adult hood to middle age. I am sure some readers will feel disconnected as well as frustrated, wanting the answers to 'why'...As with drug addiction and alcoholism sometimes knowing 'why' is the least significant issue, because medical opinions differ so widely. Achieving physical, emotional and spiritual stability in order to function even minimally in the community and within a viable family without pathological danger to oneself or others is sometimes the best we can achieve. The memoir is honest, intense, graphic and hopeful..I feel it needs editing as the message and story could be told with fewer words
Rated of 5
by Michele W. (Manchester, MD) Sharp
It's not that I'm unsympathetic to the suffering of the author; it's not that I don't admire his writing skill. I actually feel little guilty that I wasn't more moved by this tale of Fitzpatrrick's sad life as a victim, a non-suicidal cutter, and a manic-depressive professional mental patient. I always have trouble summoning up much empathy for people who accept victimhood as passively as David Fitzpatrick did. It's my nature to fight with all my strength, and I don't understand those who submit. Fitzpatrick tells us that self-punishers like him are competitive, and usually stop in their thirties when they begin to understand the essential futility of continuing on this path. David, on the other hand, didn't stop cutting and burning himself until he was over 40, a degree of stubborn hubris that he appears to think is his proudest life achievement. He leaves hints about sexual preoccupations, about family sadism, about religious confusions, and severe drug abuse, but he never puts it all together. His self-punishing, which was always non-suicidal, still seems to be his main source of self-esteem, judging by the attention he devotes to his episodes. Getting better is a process and this is where he is right now, but not where he may end up. I wish him all the luck in the world.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
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of 5
by Barbara F. (Saint Louis, MO) 
of 5
by Michele W. (Manchester, MD) 
