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May 29, 2008

Sara rated it:

Hornbacher's _Wasted_ is probably the most perceptive book ever written on eating disorders, so I went ahead and bought the hardback of this "sequel" in which she describes her diagnosis and subsequent grappling with bi-polar depression. Unfortunately, while the book might be a photo-finish accurate portrayal of what it's like to be bi-polar, the problem with the book is that it's a photo-finish accurate portrayal of what it's like to be bi-polar. The first 50 pages are a series of vig More...

9 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2008

stephanie rated it:

i have to say, she totally won me over. it was amazing because i wasn't sure if Marya Hornbacher could do it, but she redeemed herself by being more honest and upfront and REAL about her illness and willingness to get better than she was in Wasted, and more than Elizabeth Wurtzel ever, ever did.

this is best example of mania i have ever read. it is so true to life, and so true to form. it's really impressive how much insight she has into her illness when she lacked so much before More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2008

Ron rated it:

I read Hornbacher's first memoir, Wasted, a decade ago and was impressed by the strength of her voice then. But while she'd managed to fight back against her eating disorder, it turns out that she hadn't even begun to deal with her alcoholism and, more fundamentally, had only just begun to confront her bipolar condition. This memoir deals with that story, with an even stronger personal emphasis than I recall from her first book. Like her first book, it's definitely not a feel-good memoir, nor a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Diane rated it:

Madness: A Bipolar Life is a riveting memoir about the most severe form of bipolar disorder called: Rapid Cycling Type 1. She describes her struggles with the demons she faces every day, wavering between madness and deep bouts of depression.

As early as the age of 4 Marya Hornbacher was unable to sleep and night and talked endlessly. Once she was in school, other children called her crazy. By the age of 10 she discovered alcohol helped her mood swings, and by age 14, she was trading s More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Courtney rated it:

I picked the perfect time to read this book. I've been dealing with depression for years, having severe episodes about once a year. The past 4 months or so I have been in the deepest episode I've ever had. It led me to do a lot of unhealthy things in attempts to "deal" with it (i.e. cutting, starving, bingeing, purging, drugs).
Within the past few weeks, I've been getting a little better; I'm able to read and write again. I can't do those things when I'm in the midst of my depressi More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2008

Tee rated it:

Hornbacher's stories terrify me. And ashamedly, the entire time that I was reading 'Madness', all I could think about was how glad I was that I am not that crazy. It also proves the fact that human beings can be very resilient, tenacious fuckers. Having also read 'Wasted', I can't believe this woman is still alive. She's like an extreme-condition crash test dummy.

I've struggled with rather severe anxiety for years, with derealisation, panic attacks and so on - and each time I've had More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2008

Jocelynneb rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Terry rated it:

I'm a big fan of "Wasted" so I was interested in reading "Madness" because I think she's a great writer. I think this book is valuable because it is a very honest picture of living with a mental illness. Many memoirs, especially ones that deal with depression and/or eating disorders and/or dysfunctional families, sort of (sometimes accidentally, I'm sure) romanticize mental illness as a component of creativity--you know, that people who are a little unstable are more creative More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 08, 2008

Carrie rated it:

I was a huge fan of Wasted, and I worried that this book would fall prey to the usual faults of sophomore memoirs, but it's a masterful book. Hornbacher's honesty is admirable, and I appreciate the way she shows us her ongoing struggle to come to terms with her bipolar disorder as a constant and irrevocable part of her life despite her initial hopes that it could be cured or even managed more successfully that has proved possible. I also appreciated the way she shows the idea of the crazed gen More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2008

Carrie rated it:

No, I'm not bipolar. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Although Amazon.com clearly thinks that I am after this purchase, based on the recommendations I'm now getting fast and furious. :)

I read Hornbacher's first book, Wasted, when a friend of mine was suffering with an eating disorder. She is a brilliant writer and I was pleased to see she had another book out, in addition to a novel she wrote a few years back. This one, like Wasted, is a compelling, disturbing read abou More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Mandy rated it:

This book is amazing.

Marya Hornbacher is an incredible writer. She's beautifully honest and she captures her sickness in such an absolutely stunning way that it's impossible to put down.

Madness is the story of her struggle with rapid-cycle bipolar one and it makes you wonder how she's even alive today, let alone as successful as she is. I've never read any other books by her, but I absolutely will now. I'm going to find everything by her and devour it.

She t More...

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Aug 06, 2011

Nikole rated it:

I vaguely remember reading Hornbacher's first memoir, Wasted, several years ago. I couldn't recall very many details from that book, but I did remember a few random bits that stuck with me over the years. At least I thought I had remembered them. After finishing Madness, I have the impression that Wasted and Madness were, in fact, written by two different people.

I recalled Wasted as an interesting, but not terribly exciting account of Hornbacher's struggle with eating disorders. Madnes More...

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Mar 05, 2011

Tessa rated it:

I have a friend who was just diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I don't know if reading this memoir will help me be a better friend to her, but it will definitely help me understand some of the things that people with the illness experience. (And hope that my friend's cycles aren't as intense as Hornbacher's).

The writing has such an immediacy that it would be impossible not to empathize with Hornbacher, and become numb when she's numb and manic when she's manic--but also frustrated More...

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Feb 25, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Wow- My head was spinning as I listened to this woman's gut wrenching telling of her life with bipolar disorder. She flies and chats, buys and drinks and sails out of control. Then she dives to depths of depression so deep she is unable to function at all. As she shares her life's story, beginning when she is four, and moving through her school years, alcoholism, marriages and other relationships, jobs and hospitalizations, I find myself sucked into her world and wonder over it. She honestly sha More...

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Jan 27, 2010

Kelly rated it:

This was a fascinating read. It was obviously a very personal account of years and years of undiagnosed bipolar disorder, followed by years when it was diagnosed but not managed properly (or at all, for most of it). I was just amazed at how classic her symptoms were, yet nobody recognized it until she was 20. I mean, she told a doctor something like, "When I read what I wrote it's like it goes from being a maniac's work to a super-depressed person's work." I mean, COME ON! How can you More...

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Jan 16, 2010

Renee rated it:

This is the first time that I read about someone with manic–depressive disorder (/ bipolar disorder) and it certainly opened my eyes. In Madness, the author details her journey of living with the illness, from her emotionally unstable childhood to the diagnosis of her illness and finally to her acceptance of the fact that the illness will stay with her for her whole life.

It gets very repetitive in the process as she went back and forth in the progress of controlling her disorder, her More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2011

Karen rated it:

I really like these types of books. Memoirs....but any kind of memoirs....I like the one where the person has been through something rough, harsh, extreme and they share it with you. It gives you a better understanding of what people go through. Much more personal then reading a textbook or watching tv...

Marya has been cursed with bipolar disorder since she was young, but wasn't properly diagnosed until she was older. The doctors kept telling her that she had other issues and she wen More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 17, 2009

Heather rated it:

All I have to say is that this was a fascinating book for me! I couldn't put it down!!! It isn't a feel good, happy book but it is so important and so interesting. I learned an incredible amount about Bipolar disorder! As you read, you begin to pick up on her "cycles" and feel like you are in her head with her! I really didn't know much about it going in but now I feel like I grasp how incredibly difficult it is for a person to struggle with mental illness! It makes me grateful f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Audrey rated it:

Hornbacher has outdone herself. It is hard to understand mental illness, let alone to feel what it is to be in the psychotic mania and the deepest despair of bipolar disorder. But this book shows (not just tells) with surprising clarity what it is to be insane. It takes you into a mind of madness with true artistry of words that is not too abstract as to alienate you in this alien world yet fantastical enough to capture you: mind and all. The book is well balanced between events and explanation More...

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Jan 29, 2011

SheilaRaeO rated it:

I could not put this book down. It is a fascinating account of a lifelong struggle with bipolar illness and the effect it has not only on the person diagnosed but on her friends and family as well. Marya (pronounced MAR-ya) Hornbacher is an incredible writer and I was constantly amazed at the idea that she could hold together the life she did and be a successful writer while struggling so desperately with this overwhelming illness. I was at turns hopeful then despairing then back to determined h More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

Sonya rated it:

Madness spans 1978 - 2007 and is utterly vivid throughout. While some memoirs covering that many years get watered down or lose focus, Hornbacher uses representative events to tell her story rather than trying to cover every moment of her lifetime. Slashing her artery by accident begins the book and readers get the voices in Hornbacher's head along with her spontaneous trips, visits to the psych ward, marriages, lucky-she-didn't-kill-herself-or-anyone-else drinking, eating disorder, and her atte More...

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Mar 20, 2011

Sharron rated it:

This is the rare book that I am always looking for to read. The author has bipolar disorder and it is obvious some of the book has been written while she was manic. She is extremely honest and forthcoming. And you get a true feeling of how overwhelming and difficult her life is and how she has made much of it worse herself. I have a loved one with bipolar so can understand some of what she has gone through. I especially relate to the problems with insurance and medical professionals. Marya More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 19, 2010

mark rated it:

I have read Hornbacher's two previous works, [1st "Wasted", then "The Center of Winter" (a novel)):] ; and each book provides more insight into this complex person, as well as our society. She is a fine writer--and very troubled. I read "Wasted" in 2004 and thought--No way is this person "cured." Then I read her novel, "Winter," and her experiences made more sense. With "Madness" ... yeah, okay, now we're getting to the heart of the iss More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Vani rated it:

I think people who write "this book isn't Wasted" or "this isn't my/ my friend's/ my cousin's roommate's brother's experience with bipolar." Like many other people, I read this book because I read Wasted a long time ago and liked it. Actually I heard an urban legend that the author died of heart trouble after writing that book, and then saw some of her other books listed, and so was curious. This book is fundamentally a description of the experience of bipolar disorder. Yes More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Erica added it

I've read Marya Hornbacher's other books--Wasted, which is a memoir of her eating disorder, and The Center of Winter, a novel--and liked them very much. I wasn't as enchanted with this one. The reason I liked Wasted so much was that it was more genuine than other books like it. Marya Hornbacher wasn't just anorexic and bulimic, she was sincerely batty, a fact confirmed by this book. But the problem with madness, or bipolar disorder, is that it left her unable to really remember a lot of her life More...

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Jul 12, 2010

JM rated it:

update, page 90:

I love her use of language and the way she can bring crazy alive, but I question my decision to read this before bedtime, although I'm sleeping really well knowing I'm certainly not crazy, heh heh.

update, page 250:

You could do a super-sentimental job of storytelling while writing about bipolar disorder. That's not this book. Hornbacher glosses over the drama to get at the deep experience at hand. I'm blown away how she did it. Just as in " More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2010

Katie rated it:

Hornbacher does a great job of conveying the internal experience of bipolar disorder. It's a very good book, but I gave it just 3 stars because I can't quite say that I "really liked" the experience of being inside that world with her. One interesting thing she does is to remove the specific content of her thoughts and just describe the moods themselves -- she says she feels rage, for example, but often doesn't detail the things that are setting her off, what she's raging about.
More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 14, 2010

Kevin rated it:

This memoir is written in a style that mimics the bipolar episodes the author is going through. The manic times in her timeline are written with runon sentences and paragraphs that left me out-of-breath as I read. Her depression is expressed through descriptions of darkness and bleakness. Both extremes are written in a way that is able to make the reader have a slight understanding of what she's feeling as she navigates her highs-and-lows.

Although it drags a bit at times, this boo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2009

Anne rated it:

At the age of 24, Marya Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I bipolar disorder. This realization of why she thinks and behaves the way she does did not come at the outset of her disease. Rather, it came after years and years of cycling through incessant mania and debilitating depression. Hornbacher recalls moments from her childhood, such as her terrible insomnia and inability to stop jabbering flying from topic to topic with no coherent train of thought. She tried to poke fun at herself as all t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2009

kathi rated it:

All I can say is WOW about this book. I now understand why many bi-polar persons commit suicide. This woman's life was a nightmare as she had extreme mood swings. Like a lot of bi-polar patients she didn't take her meds as prescribed as she liked her periods of mania so much. Her mania went so high she was hospitalized many times. Her depressed times were so low that again she would be hospitalized.

What I learned was more about this disease than the web sites ever tell us. It he More...

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