Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression

by Casey, Nell

• ISBN13: 9780060007829
• ISBN10: 0060007826
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-26
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Unholy Ghost is a unique collection of essays about depression that, in the spirit of William Styron's Darkness Visible, finds vivid expression for an elusive illness suffered by more than one in five Americans today. Unlike any other memoir of depression, however, Unholy Ghost includes many voices and depicts the most complete portrait of the illness. Lauren Slater eloquently describes her own perilous experience as a pregnant woman on antidepressant medication. Susanna Kaysen, writing for the first time about depression since Girl, Interrupted, criticizes herself and others for making too much of the illness. Larry McMurtry recounts the despair that descended after his quadruple bypass surgery. Meri Danquah describes the challenges of racism and depression. Ann Beattie sees melancholy as a consequence of her writing life. And Donald Hall lovingly remembers the "moody seesaw" of his relationship with his wife, Jane Kenyon. The collection also includes an illuminating series of companion pieces. Russell Banks's and Chase Twichell's essays represent husbandand-wife perspectives on depression; Rose Styron's contribution about her husband's struggle with melancholy is paired with an excerpt from William Styron's Darkness Visible; and the book's editor, Nell Casey, juxtaposes her own essay about seeing her sister through her depression with Maud Casey's account of this experience. These companion pieces portray the complicated bond -- a constant grasp for mutual understandingforged by depressives and their family members. With an introduction by Kay Redfield Jamison, Unholy Ghost allows the bewildering experience of depression to be adequately and beautifully rendered. The twenty-two stories that make up this book will offer solace and enlightenment to all readers.

Author Biography

Nell Casey's work has appeared in Elle, Mirabella, Salon, and the New York Times Book Review. She is a 2000-2001 Carter Center mental health journalism fellow. She is also on the board of Stories at the Moth, a nonprofit storytelling organization. She lives in New York City

Table of Contents

Epigraph	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
A Delicious Placebo	p. 8
Toys in the Attic: An Ars Poetica Under the Influence	p. 21
Bodies in the Basement: An Ars Poetica with Attitude	p. 29
One Cheer for Melancholy	p. 38
Heaven and Nature	p. 44
Poodle Bed	p. 60
From Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen	p. 67
Noontime	p. 75
Fading to Gray	p. 105
from Darkness Visible	p. 114
Strands	p. 126
An Unwelcome Career	p. 138
Melancholy and the Muse	p. 149
Ghost in the House	p. 162
Writing the Wrongs of Identity	p. 173
On Living Behind Bars	p. 181
from The Savage God	p. 214
Planet No	p. 229
A Melancholy of Mine Own	p. 242
The Legacy	p. 256
Wish You Were Here	p. 270
A Better Place to Live	p. 281
Contributors	p. 294
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