The Silver Linings Playbook

Publisher's Summary

During his years in a neural-health facility, Pat Peoples has formulated a theory about silver linings. He believes that his life is a movie produced by God, that his mission is to become physically fit and emotionally supportive, and that if he succeeds, his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki.

When Pat goes to live with his parents, everything seems changed: no one will talk to him about Nikki, and his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as a form of therapy. Then, Pat meets clinically depressed widow Tiffany, who offers to act as a liaison between him and his wife - provided he agrees to a secret contract that includes giving up football and performing in the next Dance Away Depression competition.

©2008 Matthew Quick (P)2008 Blackstone Audio

Critic Reviews

"This offbeat story has all the markings of a crowd-pleaser." ( Publishers Weekly)

WARNING: FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL!

This book is about two subjects split right down the middle: Eagles football and mental illness, and I wish someone would have warned me. The performance was wonderful, but I almost didn't finish because I was so damned sick of hearing about Eagles football! If you don't like football, don't bother with this. The book is quite different from the movie. Also, the movie portrays the main character as bipolar. In the book, he suffers from a psychotic break, these are two very different things. Having said that, the story does excellently portray a person suffering from a psychotic break. That was the only reason I finished the book. The excess of football stats and references and the constant "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" of the Eagles fight song blaring in my ears almost ruined the book for me and is the reason why I'm only giving this two stars.

176 of 208 people found this review helpful

A remarkable achievement.

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.

109 of 135 people found this review helpful

Near Perfection

I have to say I saw the movie first. Loved it. The book is much better.

Listening to Silver Linings gave me a different take on the story. I thought that Jennifer Lawrence deserved the Oscar for playing Tiffany in the movie, but the character here is a lot deeper in the book.

The manner in which this book is written is beautiful. Humor and love pushes out of every sentence. Pat, the protagonist, is a man who has lost a few years due to being up to the gills in drugs while in a mental home. He comes home and rediscovers life.

Pat's home with his mom and dad, dealing with his past, coming to terms with whom he is. A myriad of characters so fully developed you feel that you are with family come to life. This book is just pure awesome.

If you like this book, I recommend the classic Russo book 'Nobody's Fool'.

19 of 23 people found this review helpful

Eagles Victory

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.

59 of 74 people found this review helpful

So much more than the wonderful movie

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.

26 of 36 people found this review helpful

Fantastic entree to movie appetizer

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.

24 of 35 people found this review helpful

One Exceptional Experience!

What did you love best about The Silver Linings Playbook?

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.

What other book might you compare The Silver Linings Playbook to and why?

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

15 of 24 people found this review helpful

A Good Listen

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Since the movie was in the news so much lately, I was interested in the story line. I have not seen the actual movie only the trailer and did not know what to expect from the book. I am not a big fan of the cursing (liberal use of the f_ _ _). I understand that it is an attempt to "keep it real" and that "that is just how people talk these days" but good storytelling just doesn't need that in my opinion. I have avoided books on tape in the past but found a situation where it worked. The time spent on this book was the same time that I spent well by going to the gym for a workout. The two work remarkably well together!

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I thought it fit nicely with the story.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any time he talked about the saxophonist, cracked me up.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I am curious to see why the actors in this movie received so many awards and nominations so it is tempting... As I said before, I am not a big fan of the cursing (liberal use of the f_ _ _) nor of gatuitous sex scenes and I can imagine that playing out in this movie. So, maybe not... I'll wait 'til it is cleaned up an put on TV!!

Any additional comments?

I liked the narrator's performance. It just worked for me!

9 of 15 people found this review helpful

Even better than the movie!

I was expecting this book to be pretty much the same as the movie, which I really enjoyed. The book follows a fairly different story arc than the movie, with less of an emphasis on the dance and the relationship with Tiffany, and more of an emphasis on Patrick's philosophy and recovery...and his love of the Eagles. The narrator was perfect--he captured Pat's boy-like manner, and also did a great accent for Cliff, the Indian psychologist. All in all a really great listen!

10 of 17 people found this review helpful

Spellbinding

Could not stop listening. I had other stuff to to but this book became the most important.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful