Modern Library Top 100 Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century (55)
To a liberal, life is a tragedy; to a conservative,
a comedy
-An Accurate Aphorism
William Styron suffered a clinical depression in 1985, after he ended
40 years of alcohol abuse. He subsequently turned that experience
into a lecture, a Vanity Fair article and this extremely slight
(84 pages) memoir. The process of explaining his mental illness seems
to have rendered him schizophrenic, if he was not already.
When I reviewed Sophie's Choice (see Orrin's
review; Grade: C), I noted, without knowing of his depression, that
Styron seemed to have some psychological problems. I based my belief
on his decision to write his novels from non-white, female or other ethnic
perspectives; he seemed like a man who was so profoundly uncomfortable
with himself and consumed by White Liberal guilt, as to be unbalanced.
It can hardly have come as a surprise to anyone that he descended into
a nearly suicidal spiral of depression. But, lo and behold, it surprised
him and this is symptomatic of the problems with the book. On the
one hand, Styron seems to want to bare his soul and win our sympathy for
others like him, but on the other hand he is so dishonest and/or obtuse,
that he offers little of value to his audience.
I'll just point out two other areas where his analysis fails the reader.
He labors mightily to exonerate the depressed from moral judgment and portray
them as mere victims of an organic condition, but as he notes, the chemical
changes in the brain that exacerbate depression are preceded by some prior,
purely psychological, condition--stress, guilt, what have you. Now,
I do not mean to suggest that susceptibility to Depression is necessarily
indicative of moral weakness, surely we can all understand and sympathize
with the bereaved parent or spouse who falls prey to depression after losing
a child or partner. But I am suggesting that in many cases, the mindset
and moral philosophy of the sufferer seems to be a contributing factor
in the development of depression.
This seems especially clear, and is annoyingly ignored, when Styron
discusses the other famous sufferers of depression, most of whom committed
suicide--Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, Sylvia Plath, etc. It escapes
his notice that these are all figures of the Left, plagued by the same
tormented liberal guilt as he. The two friends and fellow victims
who he discusses are Art Buchwald and Mike Wallace; the three of them have
moped through the past forty years, attacking their country, their society
and the inequities they perceive. Of course, they are depressed,
they hate themselves and the world they live in. Significantly, the
two great conservative sufferers, Churchill and Lincoln, both great believers
in the ultimate goodness of man and democracy and their countries, were
able to overcome their black moods without psychiatry or pharmacology.
It seems logical to suppose that the group of catterwauling suicidal wretches
that Styron associates himself with are predisposed to self-destructive
depression by their political pessimism and moral anxiety, but this issue
is not addressed, so we'll leave it for another day.
This is a mildly interesting trifle about a unique manifestation of
depression. It in no way belongs on this list.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (C)
Websites:
Book-related and General Links:
-INTERVIEW:
A Conversation with William Styron (NEH)
-CYBERCAST:
Discussion with Novelist William Styron (Library of Congress)
-PROFILE:
WILLIAM STYRON ON HIS LIFE AND WORK (MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NY Times Book
Review)
-BOOKLIST:
Strictly Southern: THE AUTHOR OF "SOPHIE'S CHOICE" PICKS FIVE GREAT
CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN NOVELS (William Styron, Salon)
-REVIEW:
of FORTUNATE SON By Lewis B. Puller Jr. (William Styron, NY Times
Book Review)
-ESSAY:
Dear Dirty Dublin: My Joycean Trek With Philip Roth (William Styron,
NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
THE LITERARY EYE; Death Row (William Styron, NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
William Styron: In the Jungle, NY Review of Books
-ESSAY:
William Styron: NAT TURNER AND "DRED", NY Review of Books
-ESSAY:
William Styron: Hell Reconsidered, NY Review of Books
-REVIEW:
William Styron: A Farewell to Arms, NY Review of Books
A Rumor of War by Philip
Caputo
-REVIEW:
William Styron: In the Southern Camp, NY Review of Books
Mary Chesnut's Civil War
edited by C. Vann Woodward
-REVIEW:
William Styron: MacArthur, NY Review of Books
Reminiscences by Douglas
MacArthur
-REVIEW:
William Styron: Tootsie Rolls, NY Review of Books
Candy by Terry Southern
and Mason Hoffenberg
-REVIEW:
William Styron: A Southern Conscience, NY Review of Books
A Southern Prophecy by Lewis
H. Blair and Introduction by C. Vann Woodward
-REVIEW:
William Styron: The Habit, NY Review of Books
The Consumers Union Report
on Smoking and the Public Interest
-REVIEW:
William Styron: An Elegy for F. Scott Fitzgerald, NY Review of Books
The Letters of F. Scott
Fitzgerald edited by Andrew Turnbull
-REVIEW:
William Styron: Overcome, NY Review of Books
American Negro Slave Revolts
by Herbert Aptheker
-REVIEW:
William Styron: New Editions, NY Review of Books
Slave and Citizen: The Negro
in the Americas by Frank Tannenbaum
-REVIEW:
Philip Rahv: Through the Midst of Jerusalem, NY Review of Books
The Confessions of Nat Turner
by William Styron
-REVIEW:
Eugene D. Genovese: The Nat Turner Case, NY Review of Books
William Styron's Nat Turner:
Ten Black Writers Respond
-REVIEW:
Robert Towers: Stingo's Story, NY Review of Books
Sophie's Choice by William
Styron
-ESSAY:
A VISIT TO THE BROOKLYN OF 'SOPHIE'S CHOICE' (LESLIE BENNETTS,
NY Times)
-REVIEW:
A Sojourn in Dante's Wood, and the Path Back (MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NY
Times)
-REVIEW:
A Howling Tempest in the Brain (VICTORIA GLENDINNING, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of A Tidewater Morning Three Tales From Youth By William Styron (MICHIKO
KAKUTANI, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of A TIDEWATER MORNING Three Tales From Youth. By William Styron (Richard
Bausch, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of THIS QUIET DUST And Other Writings. By William Styron (Thomas R.
Edwards, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of THIS QUIET DUST By William Styron (Anatole Broyard, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of DOG EAT DOG By Edward Bunker Introduction by William Styron (RICHARD
BERNSTEIN, NY times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
'Authenticity,' or the Lesson of Little Tree (Henry Louis Gates Jr,
NY Times Book Review)
-'GREAT
BOOKS' WE NEVER FINISHED READING (NY Times Book Review)
-PROFILE:
JAMES BALDWIN-REFLECTIONS OF A MAVERICK (Julius Lester, NY Times Book
Review)
-ESSAY:
BRINGING 'SOPHIE'S CHOICE' TO THE SCREEN (JANET MASLIN, NY Times)
-ESSAY:
MODERN NOVELS; THE 99 BEST (Anthony Burgess, NY times Book Review)
GENERAL:
-Wings
of Madness: A Depression Guide
-The
Eclipse of Hope, a sermon by Rev. Barbara Davenport
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
Since concussions are known to produce later life depression, where do they fit into your theory? Is there something, somehow weak or immoral about a concussion?
- Hank
- Apr-17-2008, 11:29
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To suggest that Styron suffered depression because of "Liberal guilt" is despicable. It would be like suggesting Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's because he's a dopey right-winger. I understand that your site has a political agenda, but I don't think that's any excuse for the disservice you do to the recently deceased Mr. Styron here. Incidentally I think that Sophie's Choice is an amazing book that can easily be appreciated by people of any political stripe. Perhaps it's time you put politics aside and appreciate great literature for what it is. I find many of the finest books can transcend political views. You should too.
- Tristan Maack
- Nov-12-2006, 22:21
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