The Deep Places

A Memoir of Illness and Discovery

De: Ross Douthat

Narrado por: Ross Douthat

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn’t exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets that only suffering reveals.

“A powerful memoir about our fragile hopes in the face of chronic illness.”—Kate Bowler, bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason

In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, D.C., to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain--a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which according to CDC definitions does not actually exist: the chronic form of Lyme disease, a hotly contested condition that devastates the lives of tens of thousands of people but has no official recognition--and no medically approved cure.

From a rural dream house that now felt like a prison, Douthat's search for help takes him off the map of official medicine, into territory where cranks and conspiracies abound and patients are forced to take control of their own treatment and experiment on themselves. Slowly, against his instincts and assumptions, he realizes that many of the cranks and weirdos are right, that many supposed "hypochondriacs" are victims of an indifferent medical establishment, and that all kinds of unexpected experiences and revelations lurk beneath the surface of normal existence, in the places underneath.

The Deep Places is a story about what happens when you are terribly sick and realize that even the doctors who are willing to treat you can only do so much. Along the way, Douthat describes his struggle back toward health with wit and candor, portraying sickness as the most terrible of gifts. It teaches you to appreciate the grace of ordinary life by taking that life away from you. It reveals the deep strangeness of the world, the possibility that the reasonable people might be wrong, and the necessity of figuring out things for yourself. And it proves, day by dreadful day, that you are stronger than you ever imagined, and that even in the depths there is always hope.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A harrowing, and often profound, account of how one man’s life can be laid almost to waste by Fate.”—Wall Street Journal

“Douthat artfully weaves two stories together. The first is the story of his own illness, the increasingly outlandish treatments he is willing to try, and the havoc the affliction wreaks in his life. As he looks for a cure, he uncovers a second story: the strange tale of Lyme disease itself . . . No two chronic illnesses are exactly alike, but even so this book will likely resonate with anyone who has suffered from a chronic condition or has cared for someone who has.”—Paul W. Gleason, LA Review of Books

“Vulnerable and moving.”—Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post

“The Deep Places is a powerful memoir about our fragile hopes in the face of chronic illness. Ross Douthat is calling us all to courage and compassion: courage for those of us who suffer, and compassion to all those who walk alongside.”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason

“A vividly narrated account . . . Douthat manages a really remarkable thing here: to weave together his story of a body’s pain, a mind’s vacillations, and a spirit’s struggles with an account of how the medical establishment deals with, or simply refuses to deal with, conditions it does not understand. That Douthat can weave all this into a unity and even make the book a kind of page-turner—that’s something special.”—Alan Jacobs, author of How to Think and Breaking Bread with the Dead

“To call it a memoir about illness is to seriously underestimate this beautiful new book. Douthat brings a believer’s heart, a journalist’s curiosity, and a writer’s talent to tell an achingly human story that is, ultimately, about life.”—James Martin, SJ, New York Times bestselling author of Learning to Pray

“I read the book in one sitting. It is so profound and truthful about the human condition. I wanted it to go on and on. I had no idea that Douthat was such a poet of pain and hope.”—Rod Dreher, New York Times bestselling author of Live Not by Lies and The Benedict Option

“This is a great book and it’s going to be important and it’s about a lot more than Lyme disease; to this nonsufferer it made Lyme disease fascinating.”—Peggy Noonan, columnist, The Wall Street Journal

Excellent!!

A must read for anyone suffering or having suffered a long term and primarily unaddressed illness. His experiences are, unfortunately, a tale so many survivors may intimately relate to.
Highly recommend to those who are loved ones of those in the midst of such sufferings...

Poor Guy!

This poor guy really went through it until he ended up diagnosing himself and doing everything that he could to help himself. Hopefully he will continue to improve and can help and encourage others.

Great book

Audible equivalent of a page turner. Absolutely compulsive listening. Beautifully written and not too dark.

Must reading for both chronic sufferers and attending doctors

Ross tells an interesting and compelling story in which he discovers much about Lyme disease and its many relatives. As important, he discovers some wisdom. His ordeal makes my own seem easy by comparison. There are lessons for everyone in the medical field, as well as those suffering from chronic health problems, especially those mysterious and poorly understood.

Fascinating and informative

I truly enjoyed listening to this title.

The book is beautifully written and performed. It touches on all aspects of the author’s experience of illness - physical, professional, interpersonal, spiritual - and his gradual descent into a world of unconventional treatments.

I found myself listening to the parts of the book that describe his experimental treatments somewhat incredulously. But I appreciated that he acknowledged that these things are unproven (from a clinical standard) and that the “evidence” came from online crowdsourcing of Lyme patients. I think, for scientists/medical professionals like myself, it has to be read as the narrative of one individual patient, whose struggles, though unique, could certainly have much in common with many others. The author asks questions about the current standards for treating Lyme disease which seem to deserve consideration by experts, but as I am not an expert in this field, I largely ponder his discussion of the science as interesting and walk away.

As a Catholic, I appreciated hearing about the spiritual aspects of his experience.