Manic: A Memoir by Terri Cheney
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Book Reviews of Manic: A Memoir
Book Review: Terry Cheney is a True Hero
Summary: 5 Stars
I applaud Terri Cheney for the courage she has shown in living and surviving a personal nightmare of a life with manic-depression. By the end of the book, she seems to have found medications that keep her mostly stable, and I hope that continues. Ms. Cheney's prose is vivid and powerful. It makes me wince to think she actually went through all of this mental and physical turmoil. Hopefully, this book will increase public understanding of mental illness and encourage the medical field to keep working for more effective treatments. Another excellent book I read about manic depression is "His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina" by Danielle Steel - the famous author. It is Ms. Steel's eulogy and toast to her son Nick, who was manic depressive, and tragically took his life when he was only in his teens. Warning -- Ms Steel's memoir is a real tear jerker. But attention needs to be given to mental illness, so we can better help and suppport the many who are afflicted. I hope Ms. Cheney continues to write and publish, and am so glad she escaped the horrible plastic lawyer life she was subjected to for so long.Book Review: Hard to believe
Summary: 2 Stars
Here's what I got from this book: if you're really, really beautiful, you can make enough money and friends during the manic phase to carry you through the depressive one, where even if you call in sick for weeks at a time and refuse to answer your phone, you won't lose your high-paying, highly competitive job. Yeah, right. I was left with so many unanswered questions from the many disjointed and confusing episodes. This book is a frustrating read and hard to believe.Book Review: Devastating insights on bipolar disorder
Summary: 4 Stars
I was not aware of this book, but a friend of mine read it and recommended it highly to me , and that was good enough reason for me to pick this up. I would not be disappointed.
In "Manic: A Memoir" (246 pages), author Terri Cheney brings the vivid tale of what it's like to live with bipolar disorder, the highs of mania and the lows of depression all compressed in one body and person. It is simply astonishing what the author goes through, all the while holding down what appears to be a very successful legal career for a number of years. The author struggles with various medications and treatments (and that's putting it mildly). Towards the end of the book, through trial and error, she comes to the conclusion that what was wrong with her was "a strange place on the bipolar spectrum called mixed state. It's the most dangerous condition possible, the one in which the most suicides occur".
From what I can make out, the author (who appears to be in her early 40s now) has found some middle ground, although I imagine that it is not possible to be ever completely cured from bipolar disorder. In all, this is a fantastic book, which you cannot put down once you are reading it. Be aware that there are several pretty graphic scenes in the book, even if they are described tastefully by the author.
Book Review: Blues
Summary: 3 Stars
Cheney's book elicits a catharsis of emotions, similarly to the effect "Blues" music has--kinda like.Book Review: The Journey
Summary: 5 Stars
In reading this memoir I saw a lot of my wife in the pages of torment and in the roller coaster ride of mania and depression. My wife committed suicide in 2006 and Terri Cheney offers loved ones and other lay persons an insight into the mind of a person suffering from bi-polar disease.
Thanks Terri.