Interesting and varied account of Melancholia.

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	• Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression Nell Casey Harper Perennial, 2002 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An honest read...

You can't get more honest then this - straight from the heart and uncompromising and without fluff are the stories of people and their day-to-day struggles with depression and the tremendous pain that is endured through the battle of and for their lives.

Interesting and varied account of Melancholia.

Sometimes a full book of ones personal account of depression or other illness can be too much. This book shares one chapter from each of the authors about their experience centering around their serious depression or someone close to them. I have read the full book by William Styron.. "Darkness Visible" That was excellent... ive found no other more complete account of Melancholia or more descriptive than his. Granted though, each persons depression is at least a bit different. There is one chapter in Unholy Ghost from Darkness Visible.

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Brilliant Collection

"Unholy Ghost" is a collection of essays by a wide range of writers on the topic of depression. I read the book, an essay here and there, between novels or late at night when I was up with my baby boy. The sorts of depression explored in the book range from chronic clinical depression, to melancholy, to the sort of depression that follows some life event, like heart surgery or the end of a novel. Several of the essays are particularly good, "Bodies in the Basement," by Russel Banks, "Ghosts in the House," by Donald Hall, "A Delicious Placebo," by Virginia Heffernan. But really, nearly all of the essays are good. They are free of platitudes. Each deals seriously with the subject, without being overly dramatic. It surprises me that the book was a bestseller. Many of the essays are not easy. Nor are they necessarily confessional. But I suspect its popularity speaks to the universal nature of the condition. I do not think I will spend a lot of time reading this sort of book, but the personal essay does give insight into an individual consciousness in a way that differs from fiction. Though I do not believe the consciousness of the personal essay is entirely without motivation, it is a different sort of motivation than that endured by the consciousness of a character driven by plot. I am not sure entirely what I am talking about right now, but it is something this collection of essays brought to mind.

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A Very Real Darkness Observed

A collection of essays by writers with depression and those who've loved them, 'Unholy Ghost' paints a vivid picture of a disease that perhaps is never taken as seriously as it deserves to be partly because its sufferers have to have a sense of humor to claim it and tame it. It is pointed out early on in the collection that the word 'depression' itself is unfairly casual by definition as it is a word that also connotates a ditch or an economic slump, like 'the blues' can trigger thoughts of BB King or the Mississippi Delta. The wonderfully redeeming throughline of 'Unholy Ghost' is the candid honesty of its contributors, whether they be subtly sardonic or brutally, eloquently optimistic. Perhaps most refreshing is that I felt free to skip around if anything got too heavy or waxed a little too poetic for my tastes. All in all, the book is not for the faint of psyche. Some sufferers of depression may find the book to be a minefield of sorts. I, myself, found it to be redeeming in its honesty and passion and overall unapologetic look at a disease that is the spawn of a very real and potent darkness.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Unholy Ghost is a unique collection of essays about depression that, in the spirit of William Styron's Darkness Visible, finds vivid expression for an elusive illness suffered by more than one in five Americans today. Unlike any other memoir of depression, however, Unholy Ghost includes many voices and depicts the most complete portrait of the illness. Lauren Slater eloquently describes her own perilous experience as a pregnant woman on antidepressant medication. Susanna Kaysen, writing for the first time about depression since Girl, Interrupted, criticizes herself and others for making too much of the illness. Larry McMurtry recounts the despair that descended after his quadruple bypass surgery. Meri Danquah describes the challenges of racism and depression. Ann Beattie sees melancholy as a consequence of her writing life. And Donald Hall lovingly remembers the "moody seesaw" of his relationship with his wife, Jane Kenyon.

The collection also includes an illuminating series of companion pieces. Russell Banks's and Chase Twichell's essays represent husbandand-wife perspectives on depression; Rose Styron's contribution about her husband's struggle with melancholy is paired with an excerpt from William Styron's Darkness Visible; and the book's editor, Nell Casey, juxtaposes her own essay about seeing her sister through her depression with Maud Casey's account of this experience. These companion pieces portray the complicated bond -- a constant grasp for mutual understandingforged by depressives and their family members.

With an introduction by Kay Redfield Jamison, Unholy Ghost allows the bewildering experience of depression to be adequately and beautifully rendered. The twenty-two stories that make up this book will offer solace and enlightenment to all readers.

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