Hornbacher's strength and honesty are remarkable, many in the mental health community may read this and think that humility and vulnerability could never be told all the way through in a memoir about a biochemical topic this way, without it appearing pathetic or appearing self-critical. Instead of those things, Hornbacher appears insightful, observational, in touch with her feelings, in the moment, and open to change. It seems to me that her strength was always there even from page one, it was just hiding beneath the surface. I laughed and I cried-- just pages apart throughout the book.
RECOMMEND! EXCELLENTLY NARRATED!!!! ( )

Similar to Wasted, Marya invites us into her private hell of mental illness. I read this book with a combination of horror, admiration, and respect. ( )

Let me just start out by saying that I absolutely adored Wasted. Madness just didn't measure up.

The whole time I was reading it, I felt like I might as well be reading about an entirely different person. In Wasted, Hornbacher seemed to define herself by her eating disorder--she was truly intimate with the disorder and she let her audience know this unflinchingly, sometimes making it seem like a best friend and other times like a worst enemy. With Madness, though, the eating disorder is skimmed over. It's mentioned, of course, but if I hadn't known any better, I would have thought that it was just some phase Hornbacher went through instead of the life-crumbling whirlwind described in Wasted.

But while Hornbacher seemed totally in tune with her eating disorder in Wasted, almost enough to seem a little proud of it, the same cannot be said of her new disorder in Madness. It seemed like she suddenly felt like she had to make bipolar disorder responsible for EVERYTHING in her lifetime and just dismiss everything else (i.e. anorexia, bulimia) as a side effect of bipolar. I think that with her new diagnosis, Hornbacher lost all perspective of who she was.

This brings me to another issue: since Hornbacher seems to have lost all sense of self, the depth of the writing is severely affected. Hornbacher does the same thing over and over again in this book: she's crazy, she parties, she drinks, she gets hospitalized. The 'craziness' itself did nothing for me. In Wasted, I could feel Hornbacher spiraling out of control. (i.e. She finds out she's pregnant and throws herself down the stairs, she binges insanely and is unable to stop herself, etc.) In Madness, the craziness is shallow, for lack of a better word. There are only a few instances where she truly demonstrates this insanity, and even those parts feel a little depthless. (i.e. She overdoses on her medication and her husband has to take her to the hospital once again.)

And much as I hate to say it, some of this felt a little bit exaggerated. Specifically, her behavior during her manic episodes. I never once remember her acting like this during Wasted. She seemed like your run-of-the-mill crazy person, or at least the run-of-the-mill crazy person the way they are depicted on comedy television. (i.e. Laughing at things that are not funny, rambling on about nothing, etc.) This was part of what I meant by the depthless craziness. It could just be due to the meds she was taking but that somehow seems a little hard to believe--even when she was hospitalized at 52 pounds in Wasted, she still seemed to retain some sense of reality. She had enough sense to know she needed help at least. She never had that kind of sense in Madness and it continually frustrated me and even rang a little bit untrue.

Final verdict: Three stars. Marya's prose is still brilliant and there were some parts that definitely merited praise. But unless you're specifically looking for a book on bipolar disorder, skip Madness and pick up Wasted instead. ( )

_Madness_ is raw and difficult to read; it is a horror story tempered with extraordinary acts of love. It chronicles Marya Hornbacher's late diagnosis with bipolar disorder, and the first several years of managing -- and failing to manage -- her worsening illness. As medical memoir, it's fascinating material; Hornbacher's sketches of hospitalization contrast ineveitably against Kaysen's in _Girl, Interrupted._ Juxtaposed with _Wasted_, Hornbacher's previous memoir about her life-threatening eating disorders, _Madness_ is a sequel that partially dismantles the happy ending of the previous book, and makes one suspicious of the crafted narrative arc of _Madness_ as well -- it's more clear that the ambiguously hopeful ending is a deliberate construction, not just for the sake of the story, but for the sake of Hornbacher's sanity.

This book is Marya Hornbacher's real life story about living with bipolar. She describes her mania, her destructive behavior and the effects of her behavior on herself and all her loved ones.

Her writing is intense and descriptive; it gives you an idea of what she is going through when she is in a manic episode. Her struggles with an eating disorder, alcohol, and her medications are continual and some are ongoing. She is honest, so honest that I could really feel her pain. It feels like she actually brings you into her world just for a bit so you can get an idea of what it is like. I got the idea and a new respect for people who struggle with mental illness.

This book also made me appreciate, even more, my boring little "normal" life-thank goodness for it! ( )