“We do not believe in Hell, we cannot imagine it, yet it exists,
one can suddenly find oneself there, in the depths of depression. This is the
lesson of this small, beautiful and terrible book. It is the story of severe
depression, with its procession of anxiety, insomnia, “devastating outbursts” and
the temptation of suicide. William Styron shows us for the first time what this
interior “storm of darkness” really is. It can strike anyone at any time, but
perhaps more particularly certain writers or artists. Hemingway, Virginia
Woolf, Romain Gary, Primo Levi, Van Gogh: the list of these designated prey of
this shadow would be long. Hell, therefore, such as that of Dante, a pain with
no other way out than self-destruction, an incommunicable state of trance, that
others do not suspect, not even psychiatrists. But healing is possible; we can learn
new knowledge, with precision and courage. The great novelist William Styron
pleads here both for a better understanding of others lost in horror and
against the taste for nothingness that hovers over all of us.” Philippe Sollers.
Author: William
Styron was born on June 11, 1925 in Newport News, Virginia. He grew up in the
southern United States and was steeped in its history. Styron’s paternal grandparents were slave owners,
but his mother, a Yankee from the north, and his father, a progressive, gave
him very broad ideas on race relations in the United States. Styron’s childhood
was difficult. His father suffered from depression and his mother died from
breast cancer when William was 13 years old. William Styron spent time living in
Rome and Paris; he was a connoisseur of European literature which influenced
his style.
He died
on November 2006 at the age of 81. He wrote great books such as The Confessions
of Nat Turner (1967) and Sophie's Choice (1979).
My
thoughts: I read this book in August 2009 and re-read it recently. It is an easy
read and not at all scientific, with little in the way of medical vocabulary,
except when William mentions the medicine he took and their effects on his
mental and physical health.
In 127
pages, William Styron explains the depression he suffered in 1985, how he
plunged into this state, how he was at that time and how he escaped. Personally,
I found this to be a very interesting approach and a good way to explain
depression in general. William also says that understanding this illness
allowed him not to judge those who commit suicide to escape too much suffering
due to their state of despair. This was the case for many of his friends,
Romain Gary, Jean Seberg to name but a few…The question that William raises is:
is life worth living? To my point of view, YES.
The
part that interested me most was his description of the symptoms of depression.
He outlines what is going on in the head
of a depressive person with this disease. Now I understand better the distress
of these people. Fortunately, melancholy (the old name for depression) was recognised
as a disease long ago and ever since there have been effective treatments for
it.
