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| Manic: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Terri Cheney
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.96
You Save: $10.99 (44%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 9994
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061430234
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8950092
EAN: 9780061430237
ASIN: 0061430234
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"I didn't tell anyone that I was going to Santa Fe to kill myself." On the outside, Terri Cheney was a highly successful, attractive Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer. But behind her seemingly flawless facade lay a dangerous secret—for the better part of her life Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder and concealing a pharmacy's worth of prescriptions meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal." In bursts of prose that mirror the devastating highs and extreme lows of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster life with shocking honesty—from glamorous parties to a night in jail; from flying fourteen kites off the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm to crying beneath her office desk; from electroshock therapy to a suicide attempt fueled by tequila and prescription painkillers. With Manic, Cheney gives voice to the unarticulated madness she endured. The clinical terms used to describe her illness were so inadequate that she chose to focus instead on her own experience, in her words, "on what bipolar disorder felt like inside my own body." Here the events unfold episodically, from mood to mood, the way she lived and remembers life. In this way the reader is able to viscerally experience the incredible speeding highs of mania and the crushing blows of depression, just as Cheney did. Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder—it takes us in its grasp and does not let go. In the tradition of Darkness Visible and An Unquiet Mind, Manic is Girl, Interrupted with the girl all grown up. This harrowing yet hopeful book is more than just a searing insider's account of what it's really like to live with bipolar disorder. It is a testament to the sharp beauty of a life lived in extremes.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 Gripping and insightful perspective on living with this horrific medical condition August 10, 2008
A medical condition, a flaw in chemistry that has psychological consequences, bipolar illness rarely produces a warm and fuzzy personality. It is a challenge for us not experiencing the feelings and conditions of the disease to have empathy. Cheney's memoir is truthful and colorful, a service to those who yearn to know more-
I am grateful for this book.
 File this book under "Fictional Novel" July 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book reads like a fictional novel, and a bad one at that. If you are looking for some insight into mental illness, look elsewhere. The story is thoroughly un-believable; the lack of details about anything stretches credulity. I It is only when the author wants to fluff her pieces does precise memories seem to magically appear. And the few "stories" about which she writes appear non-chronologically, and seem "scripted". It is actually insulting to the reader that we are supposed to believe her "memoir". The author seems cold, uncaring, and most of all, desperate. A disappointing book all around.
Terry Cheney is a True Hero June 27, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I applaud Terri Cheney for the courage she has shown in living and surviving a personal nightmare of a life with manic-depression. By the end of the book, she seems to have found medications that keep her mostly stable, and I hope that continues. Ms. Cheney's prose is vivid and powerful. It makes me wince to think she actually went through all of this mental and physical turmoil. Hopefully, this book will increase public understanding of mental illness and encourage the medical field to keep working for more effective treatments. Another excellent book I read about manic depression is "His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina" by Danielle Steel - the famous author. It is Ms. Steel's eulogy and toast to her son Nick, who was manic depressive, and tragically took his life when he was only in his teens. Warning -- Ms Steel's memoir is a real tear jerker. But attention needs to be given to mental illness, so we can better help and suppport the many who are afflicted. I hope Ms. Cheney continues to write and publish, and am so glad she escaped the horrible plastic lawyer life she was subjected to for so long.
Hard to believe June 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Here's what I got from this book: if you're really, really beautiful, you can make enough money and friends during the manic phase to carry you through the depressive one, where even if you call in sick for weeks at a time and refuse to answer your phone, you won't lose your high-paying, highly competitive job. Yeah, right. I was left with so many unanswered questions from the many disjointed and confusing episodes. This book is a frustrating read and hard to believe.
Devastating insights on bipolar disorder June 20, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was not aware of this book, but a friend of mine read it and recommended it highly to me , and that was good enough reason for me to pick this up. I would not be disappointed.
In "Manic: A Memoir" (246 pages), author Terri Cheney brings the vivid tale of what it's like to live with bipolar disorder, the highs of mania and the lows of depression all compressed in one body and person. It is simply astonishing what the author goes through, all the while holding down what appears to be a very successful legal career for a number of years. The author struggles with various medications and treatments (and that's putting it mildly). Towards the end of the book, through trial and error, she comes to the conclusion that what was wrong with her was "a strange place on the bipolar spectrum called mixed state. It's the most dangerous condition possible, the one in which the most suicides occur".
From what I can make out, the author (who appears to be in her early 40s now) has found some middle ground, although I imagine that it is not possible to be ever completely cured from bipolar disorder. In all, this is a fantastic book, which you cannot put down once you are reading it. Be aware that there are several pretty graphic scenes in the book, even if they are described tastefully by the author.
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