By: Terri Cheney Publisher: William Morrow Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: William Morrow Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: February 01, 2008 Release Date: February 05, 2008
"I didn't tell anyone that I was going to Santa Fe to kill myself."
On the outside, Terri Cheney was a highly successful, attractive Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer. But behind her seemingly flawless façade lay a dangerous secret—for the better part of her life Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder and concealing a pharmacy's worth of prescriptions meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal."
In bursts of prose that mirror the devastating highs and extreme lows of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster life with shocking honesty—from glamorous parties to a night in jail; from flying fourteen kites off the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm to crying beneath her office desk; from electroshock therapy to a suicide attempt fueled by tequila and prescription painkillers.
With Manic, Cheney gives voice to the unarticulated madness she endured. The clinical terms used to describe her illness were so inadequate that she chose to focus instead on her own experience, in her words, "on what bipolar disorder felt like inside my own body." Here the events unfold episodically, from mood to mood, the way she lived and remembers life. In this way the reader is able to viscerally experience the incredible speeding highs of mania and the crushing blows of depression, just as Cheney did. Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder—it takes us in its grasp and does not let go.
In the tradition of Darkness Visible and An Unquiet Mind, Manic is Girl, Interrupted with the girl all grown up. This harrowing yet hopeful book is more than just a searing insider's account of what it's really like to live with bipolar disorder. It is a testament to the sharp beauty of a life lived in extremes.
The Bell Jar with a "happy" ending If you read the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Terri Cheney's Manic: A Memoir, then you'll see some parallels between the two writers and the decision to organize their thoughts the way they feel best tells their stories. Plath's book was a fictional telling of her own story while Cheney's is undiluted autobiography.
During Plath's time, however, there wasn't a clear definition of what she was suffering from, and Cheney was "fortunate" that modern medicine has evolved sufficiently to help make her condition bearable.
Cheney is a good, solid storyteller and her descriptions of the manic depressive episodes she experienced often rang true for me and my loved one who suffers from bipolar disorder.
I am disheartened by some of the negative, and sometimes baselessly cruel reviews, from some of the readers and it actually makes me wonder whether they indeed read the book or understand the illness. It doesn't matter whether you live in Beverly Hills or in the poorest part of the nation, this illness knows no boundries and does not discriminate.
Cheney perfectly encapsulates all of the inner torture of this horrible illness with wit, charm and unceasing realism. It is both a tribute to her survival instinct matched with modern medication and is thoroughly recommended as an insight to a terrible, debilitating illness.
Gripping and insightful perspective on living with this horrific medical condition A medical condition, a flaw in chemistry that has psychological consequences, bipolar illness rarely produces a warm and fuzzy personality. It is a challenge for us not experiencing the feelings and conditions of the disease to have empathy. Cheney's memoir is truthful and colorful, a service to those who yearn to know more- I am grateful for this book.
File this book under "Fictional Novel" The book reads like a fictional novel, and a bad one at that. If you are looking for some insight into mental illness, look elsewhere. The story is thoroughly un-believable; the lack of details about anything stretches credulity. I It is only when the author wants to fluff her pieces does precise memories seem to magically appear. And the few "stories" about which she writes appear non-chronologically, and seem "scripted". It is actually insulting to the reader that we are supposed to believe her "memoir". The author seems cold, uncaring, and most of all, desperate. A disappointing book all around.
Terry Cheney is a True Hero 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.
Hard to believe 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.
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