The Noonday Demon: to Contract AIDS
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readytoread d The Noonday Demon: to contract AIDS. He credits family (espe- half of all suicides in the United States are sAn Atlas of Depression cially his father), friends, and medications committed by people in the care of a psy- ANDREW SOLOMON (especially Xanax, a benzodiazepine in chiatrist. He opines that rather than be con- the same drug family as Valium) for sav- sidered a symptom of depression, suicide Scribner, New York, 2001, 571 pp, ing his life. may be a problem that coexists with $28 hardback, $16 paperback While Solomon looks at his struggle depression. ISBN 0-684-85466-X with depression with raw honesty and a lit- But one of his most powerful chapters John Cassian, a erary tone, he also brings forth others who discusses the treatments for depression, monk and writer have fought this disease (some who have and Solomon emphasizes the healing facil- from the 5th cen- won and some who have lost). His exam- itated by mental health providers and the tury, referred to inations look at economic issues. Depres- pharmaceutical industry. He analyzes ther- melancholy as one sion is especially common among the apies from pills to shock to talk, including of the seven deadly poor, where treatment in the form of ther- antidepressant medications such as selec- sins. The sixth sin apy and antidepressant medication is rarely tive serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (Prozac, was “weariness available. In 1997, an article in the The New Zoloft, Paxil, and Luvox), monoamine oxi- and distress of the England Journal of Medicine conceded a dase inhibitors, mood stabilizers (lithium), heart” and was definitive link between depression and electroconvulsive therapy, and psycho- referred to in the 90th Psalm as “the noon- “sustained economic hardship.” In fact, analysis. In one chapter, “Alternatives”, he day demon” (he called this sin acedia, Solomon points out that given that an delves into accounts of success and failure Latin for sloth). According to Cassian, impoverished existence is often accom- of treatments such as S-adenosylmethio- this misery “produces dislike of the place panied by numerous psychosocial risks nine, St. John’s wort, acupuncture, and where one is, disgust, disdain, and con- (such as a history of sexual abuse), it is Qigong—a Chinese system of breathing tempt for other men, and sluggishness.” surprising that more than approximately and exercises. The noonday demon, according to writer 25% of the poor in the United States are not One of the reasons Solomon said he and journalist Andrew Solomon, is an depressed. wrote The Noonday Demon was that he especially dangerous kind of sadness—an Solomon’s analysis also moves from thought that synthesis was missing in the invader of sorts that attacks the soul. gender (why women are twice as likely to vast library of depression books. Through Most people fear the demons or invaders suffer from depression) to culture (what the almost 600 pages of meticulous that come in the night—if you can’t see depression is like outside the United research and exhaustive detail, Solomon them, you can’t defeat them. But the noon- States). For instance, in Greenland, as paints a more comprehensible, although day demon defies this logic, which makes many as 80% of the Inuit population suffer no less awful, picture of this complex it all the more powerful and treacherous. from depression. This is partly related to disease. Solomon associates this catastrophic force the fact that the sun does not shine for —REVIEWED BY JULIE L. MC DOWELL with a condition that claims an increasing three months, but Solomon number of victims year after year: “Depres- explores why most Inuit suicides The Best American sion stands in the full glare of the sun, happen in May. He also looks at Science Writing 2001 unchallenged by recognition. You can the Cambodian population, many TIMOTHY FERRIS, EDITOR know all the whys and the wherefores, and of whom survived the bloody HarperCollins Publishers, suffer just as much as if you were shrouded Khmer Rouge dictatorship, and he New York, 2001, 320 pp, by ignorance.” travels to West Africa to partici- $14 paperback The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of In pate in an “ndeup”. The Lebou ISBN 0-0609-3648-7 Depression, Solomon confronts this glare and Sérèr peoples of Senegal of depression in an effort to comprehend believe that this ritual, which Science writers are mis- the disease that beats down more than involves being covered with blood understood, asserts editor 19 million Americans every year, accord- from rams and chickens while Timothy Ferris in his intro- ing to the National Institute of Mental African women dance to a drum duction to The Best American Science Writing Health (more than 2 million sufferers are cadence, will ward off the evil spirits that 2001. “People tend to assume that we write children). This volume abounds with per- cause depression. computer software manuals or those buck- sonal stories of depression, including his In his chapter on suicide Solomon ram-bound engineering textbooks assigned own breakdowns and his indirect attempt asserts, based on a 1998 study in the to students in technical institutes,” writes at suicide by engaging in unprotected sex British Journal of Psychiatry, that almost Ferris, who has been nominated for both a 2002 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY OCTOBER 2002 MODERN DRUG DISCOVERY 55 dreadytoread Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy ing stem cell research by New York Times for his science writing. “Fellow authors dis- Kidder’s essay, “The Good Doctor”, profiles Magazine contributor Stephen S. Hall. miss us as ‘translators,’ bringing to mind Paul Farmer, a world-renowned social med- While navigating through the rocky ethi- Robert Frost’s quip that the ‘poetry is what ical activist and Harvard professor, who cal and commercial landscape surround- gets lost in translation.’” shuns the ivy walls of Cambridge in favor ing this political hot potato, Hall analyzes This second annual collection of sci- of tending to AIDS patients in some of the impact stem cell technology will have ence journalism gathers work from Haiti’s poorest villages. As one of the in thousands of medical and social appli- Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic founders of the international relief agency cations. Monthly, among other eminent publica- Partners in Health, Farmer advises many Overall, Ferris has compiled a diverse col- tions, to earnestly dismiss Ferris’s feared world leaders on issues concerning public lection of science writing that satisfies on misconceptions. Authored by some of the health and infectious diseases and spends many levels and approaches a common great contemporary writers and thinkers, much of the year living in a small house in theme—every scientific development brings Haiti without running water. controversy, eccentric personalities, and a Then there’s Peter Boyer’s “DNA on good story. Trial”, a look at the Innocence Project, a pro- —REVIEWED BY JULIE L. MC DOWELL Pulitzer Prize-winning gram sponsored by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in lower Manhattan lmoregoodreading writer Tracy Kidder’s that has had a hand in exonerating 39 peo- ple convicted of crimes since it was founded Darkness Visible: essay, “The Good in 1992. A nonprofit clinic, the project rep- A Memoir of Madness resents clients in cases where DNA testing by William Styron Doctor”, profiles of evidence can yield conclusive proof of Vintage Books, 1992 innocence. But just as the unearthing of Paul Farmer, a world- DNA has set people free, Boyer found that An Unquiet Mind DNA testing has also been used to send by Kay Redfield Jamison renowned social medical them back to jail in subsequent tangles Random House, 1997 with the law. activist and Harvard In “Let Them Eat Fat”, Greg Critser Melancholia and Depression: examines the “supersizing” of America From Hippocratic Times professor. by fast-food chains that help to create to Modern Times obese teenagers who grow into adults on by Stanley W. Jackson the brink of medical catastrophe by their Yale University Press, 1990 mid-20s. Critser also scrutinizes the Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression these 22 articles (and a poem by John increase in fast-food access (and the fall by Nell Casey, Ed. Updike that was inspired by a Scientific in access to fresh, nutritious food) in poor, William Morrow & Co., 2001 American article) focus on controversies urban communities that fuels this child- and issues rooted in the scientific com- hood obesity. The Future of Life munity that cross political and social bound- Other articles featured in this collection by Edward O. Wilson aries, such as stem cell research, genome include Natalie Angier’s discovery of female Knopf, 2002 sequencing, and criminal exoneration via domination in mandrill society, Malcolm DNA testing. Gladwell’s investigation of scientists who The Best American Science In “The Genome Warrior”, best-selling want to revolutionize birth control, and & Nature Writing 2001 author Robert Preston tags along with Michael S. Turner’s profile of those who are Edward O. Wilson, Ed. J. Craig Venter, the prickly individual who trying to see in the dark in “More Than Houghton Mifflin, 2001 was president and chief scientific officer of Meets the Eye”. Turner writes about The Soul of a New Machine the Celera Genomics Group when it astronomers who want to go beyond the by Tracy Kidder sequenced the human genetic code. Preston, ordinary matter of the stars, galaxies, and Little, Brown & Co., 2000 (originally author of The Hot Zone and The Cobra planets, which is only thought to account Event, chronicles the dramatic, convoluted for 5% of the universe, and, using the lat- published in 1981) race toward this accomplishment. At the est technology, probe the dark matter that The Red Limit: The Search for heart of the story are the players involved purportedly makes up the rest of the uni- the Edge of the Universe (including James Watson and Francis verse.