The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel

Matthew Quick has accomplished several amazing things here, and it's really hard to list them all. First, he has documented the nature of mental illness in general and bipolar disorder in fine detail, the first book (in my experience) to do this in novel form. Second, he has drawn a terrific, touching love story between two people who are both fragile and suffering from loss. They are both determined, nonetheless, to find the "silver linings" in life. Three, he has depicted a suffering family which is trying to cope with a deeply disturbed, isolated and enraged father. Fourth, he has portrayed the love story between a community and its football team, the Philadelphia Eagles. The passion that the fans have for their team is almost unimaginable in its ferocity, a love that many men understand and many women cannot. If you are a woman, just think of sports as male emotionality. Fifth (I am counting) he has depicted a very unusual relationship between a therapist and his patient. Cliff, the psychiatrist who follows Pat after his four-year involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital, is also a raving Eagles fan, who delights in jumping out of his chair and doing the Eagles chant. When Pat is puzzled by this (as who wouldn't be), Cliff says, "When I sit in this chair, I am your therapist. When I get out of this chair, I am your friend and fellow Eagles fan." Can you imagine any psychiatrist, if you know any, who could do such a thing?
I have lost track of all that Mr. Quick has done here, but, trust me, it is an awe-inspiring thing. For one in the profession (I am a psychologist), it is all the more astounding. That the book works so well on all of these levels, and more, is just a pleasure. I think Mr. Quick is a young author, and I hope we will hear more from him.
Mr. Porter does a great job with this challenging material. Serious mental illness is frightening, and both these men have done a wonderful job of conveying the torment that these patients suffer. Even so, the book is uplifting. If you have seen the movie, you know that it is wonderful as well, but it is quite different.. A movie has much different rules than a book, and it just can't convey the richness of this work of fiction. The book may be hard to listen to at times, as Mr. Quick does not pull any punches, so just put it down for a while and then come back to it. The book and the movie combined have contributed to the process of destigmatizing mental illness, which is all very much to the good. I am preaching here, so I will stop. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

Pat has returned home after spending time in a "bad place" with no recollection of the last 4 years. His mother, brother, best friend, and new therapist provide support and are all avid Eagles fans. Pat works out incessantly, reads good works of literature, and tries to be nicer in hopes of finding his way back to his estranged wife Nikki. Photos of the two are gone from the family home and Pat doesn't understand why no one will tell him what happened. He believes if he transforms, she will take him back.

Enter the clinically depressed sister-in-law of his best friend as a blind date and the story takes shape. She is real and visceral and they see each other through the myriad medications and mental road blocks.

Pat speaks to the reader in a straightforward dialogue, often addressing you personally. He refuses to give up or give in to pessimism, believing every cloud has a silver lining. This is a bittersweet love story and with equal parts humor and sorrow. Finishing the book left me with the idea, the only way to move on is to simply let go.

Here is a masterpiece and maybe the best book I have found on Audible, yet it deals with perhaps the hardest subject matter there is in modern literature. There are so many reasons I love this book, its hard to rank them.

But let me start with Ray Porter's narration.I have listed him before in my top 3 performers, but there is no question this one makes him the top narrator on Audible. And that is from a library of over 800 titles. There are alot of emotions and even deadpan dialect within this book and Porter captures it all perfectly.

The story revolves around mental illness, a very sensitive and often tragic subject matter. It does not burden us with diagnosis, yet it blesses us with the healing power of excellent therapy. And there is the perfect amount of humor to keep us interested.

Perhaps what I loved most was Quick's use of classic American literature to provide clever and penetrating metaphors to tell us what the hero is actually facing and/or running from.

The Help. Its groundbreaking literature exmaning mental illness as opposed to race to reveal true human experience.

Jennifer Lawrence's extraordinary performance saved the movie of this book, but the Matthew Quick's novel filled in the myriad of strange gaps that either the editors or screen writer left me and my companion as we left the theater a bit bewildered. Ray Porter's narration coupled with Quick's excellent dialogue made this incredibly well done story swim by. The way Quick ever so slowly brought us to the understanding of Pat's and Tiffany's traumas was brilliant. The characters in the book are so more complex and compelling than their counterparts in the movie, where they almost became caricatures. Feel like the movie was a trailer to one remarkable book, which I've urged all my friends who saw the movie to read.

Very well done but absolutely nothing like the movie. Same characters, only more real and flawed, with a similar story although drastically differring in parts. Both versions are good, it's easy to see why the broad changes were made to these hard to like characters in an effort to appeal to more people, but be clear before you get started, THIS IS NOT THE MOVIE. If you can get past this truth, as it took me awhile, you'll enjoy yourself very much.

Another reviewer said the movie was "a trailer for the book," and I can't improve on that description. This book was wonderful. If you loved the film, you will find more complex, more fleshed-out characters and situations that are not as pat as a movie script demands.You'll like the book a lot more, I bet.

The narrator nails the psychiatrist's accent, which was one of the most enjoyable parts of this Audible experience for me. The women's voices weren't as distinguishable--slightly higher and quicker than the men's, but that was OK.

I found this to be a fascinating romance of two troubled individuals and their healing.

I listened to The Silver Linings Playbook twice - once on my own and a second time with my husband. Our lives have both been touched by mental illness, and we like to read books that address this strange and complicated subject. Normally we listen to non-fiction, but we made an exception for The Silver Linings Playbook. Written in funny first-person perspective, this book takes you into the mind of Pat, who is trying to rebuild his life after a stay in a mental institution. Pat will make you laugh out loud.

Ray Porter brings the character of Pat to life. If I had just read the book, I probably would have imagined Pat to be sullen and morose. Porter's version of Pat is delightfully optimistic, honest and funny.

I highly recommend this book. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is because the plot is a bit over-simplified. Don't get me wrong - the plot is great - but it isn't going to win any prestigious literary awards. It reads like a book that was written to be made into a movie. And what a wonderful coincidence! It HAS been made into a movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. So buy this book today, enjoy the listen, and plan to see the movie in November.

I have never listened to an audiobook in such a short time--I found every possible opportunity to listen. I have not yet seen the movie -- and now I am glad I experienced the book first, as I am not able to imagine how this story could be fully captured on screen. The narration was excellent, and the story interesting and engaging at every step. I did not want it to end.

I would definitely listen to Silver Linings Playbook again. There was so much detail and interesting characters.

I would compare Silver Linings Playbook to Life of Pi because of the detail.

Any scene from the football games.

Pat. I would just love to hear his thoughts and see his reactions to things.

Absolutely and I can't wait to see the movie!

I think the therapist is awesome.

Probably Pat waking up to Kenny G standing in front of him.