The Unquiet Mind

I downloaded this title today, so I'd have a copy when I return the borrowed paper book version I have. It quickly became apparent that there are parts missing, so I began reading along and this is certainly *not* the Unabridged version.
On a single page several paragraphs were chopped in half. The book, which has four parts, has been whittled down to three. Someone, somewhere, has a very loose definition of unabridged.
Still, I'm enjoying what I hear. I just wonder what I'm going to miss from the continuation of the audiobook.

Richly written description of the very difficult life lead by a suffering manic-depressive. I highly recommend this book. Its not just a study on the illness, you get this great insight from a brilliant woman and its a riveting story of her life.

The end was truly beautiful. Every single word in this book reminds me of my own struggle with manic depressive illness.

I give her a lot of credit for writing about herself. This book has potential to help a lot of people. Her voice is mundane, howerver.

The first book I read by Jamison was "Manic Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression" that she wrote with Frederick Goodwin. 1262 pages. Although huge and technical, it is surprisingly readable. (I skipped all the parts comparing the drawbacks of different studies) It's the bible of bipolar disorder.

So this book was quite a change, a short and very personal book. I'm glad I heard it aloud and I'm glad she read it herself. I disagree with the people who found her voice dull and unemotional. That's what therapists sound like. If you listen carefully, you can hear the tiniest cracks in her voice when she talks about the losses in her life. Not unemotional. Dignified and subtle and heartbreaking.

One thing she says in the book that might interest Audible listeners is that she lost her ability to read when she was on a high dose of lithium. She'd read a paragraph, have no idea what it said, then have to read it again. And again. She had to have her boyfriend read aloud to her. Lowering her dose apparently helped improve her reading, enough to read and distill shelves full of difficult technical articles into "only" 1262 pages. A heroic accomplishment.

Most bipolars I've talked to say they have problems reading books - they can handle articles. They're not all on lithium, and those that are are not on high doses. I think it's a consequence of the disorder. Thank goodness we have Audible for popular books. I'd love it if Audible would offer her magnum opus, but it's an absurdly huge technical book with a limited audience. Maybe Amazon will loosen up on its "read out loud" feature so it's available not just on physical Kindles but on phones, pcs and macs.

Tough subject but an interesting story. Not for everyone though. Likely best for those whose interest run in this area.

I respect Kay Redfield Jamison for her courage in sharing her personal story. From that perspective, the book demonstrates another step in the healing process and the reader is included in that. Nevertheless, a memoir is not a textbook or a medical journal. A memoir is a story and demands to be written as such. Her description of people is flat. Her use of cliches is constant. There's very little imagery I haven't heard hundreds of times. It's strictly a narrative and only contains two lines of dialogue. Because it's so one-dimensional, I think it's difficult to feel her pain, or stay with it. She reports how she felt insane, but we don't feel it. The best part of the book is the opening pages. In those we really feel her frenetic energy in the parking lot. But it stops there. We never get back to that depth of character. We get a little bit more in her relationship with David, but she skirts the edge of it and relates it as if were a news piece.

It's clear that Jamison knows how to write factual material. Work is needed on character development and imagery. Even a memoir written in a narrative style, standard story telling techniques are demanded. Jamison is too intelligent to make that kind of a mistake.

As a narrator, Jamison is flat. There's very little inflection or change of mood and tone. It's a droning pace that quickly becomes white noise. I understand why she wants to read her own story, but a good narrator may have been able to bring energy to it that Jamison was unable to manage.

If you simply are looking to fill a few hours learning about bipolar disorder and don't want to get involved with story, the book is fine. But if you want to enter that world and truly visit for a while, find another novel.

Yes. I listened to this in order to have better insight toward manic depression and recovery from a mental illness. The author's experience with manic depression interested me, but her background and life story in general seemed dry and emotionless. I feel some individuals with manic depression would have a tough time relating to her story, because she was born into a life that allowed her to utilize the best resources available for her disorder.

I do respect the author's experience with manic depression, and am glad she wrote this book despite fears about the stigma toward mental illness, and it's potential to negatively impact her personal and professional life. She comes across as very intelligent and educated about the disorder, and shares some great thoughts. The revelation at the end of her memoir had the greatest impact on me because it gave me a different perspective on living with manic depression.

The author did a great job describing why so many with bipolar disorder struggle taking the prescribed medications.

The author's stories of how she revealed her disorder to the men in her life, her employer, and the world.

This story was about Kay Redfield Jamison. There were not any other characters in the book.

Although the event had little to do with bipolar disorder, the moment in the book that moved me was when her partner, David, died unexpectedly.

This is a particularly good book to read if you or any of your loved ones are taking lithium for treatment of bipolar disorder. The author does a good job of talking about the pros and cons of treatment, and the benefit of treatment in spite of losing her hypomanic moments. She also does a good job discussing the pros and cons of parenting with bipolar disorder.

Fascinating, inspiring,touching

Kay the narrator, because she was clearly going outside her private comfort zone to tell her story.

When her lover was being buried with the English military honors.

no.