Prozac Nation was published when Wurtzel was twenty-seven, and it defined the philosophical difference between memoir and autobiography. It was the story of Wurtzel’s clinical depression, but the veracity of the narrative mattered less than the way the author’s illness shaped her own discernment of what was actually happening. It was indulgent and self-absorbed, although according to an epilogue Wurtzel added to the paperback, that was intentional.
