Clancy Martin
Auteur van How to Sell
Over de Auteur
Werken van Clancy Martin
Love and Lies: An Essay on Truthfulness, Deceit, and the Growth and Care of Erotic Love (2015) 31 exemplaren
How To Sell (in McSweeney's 23 - EGGERS) 1 exemplaar
Nicaragua (in The Lifted Brow 6 - SCOTT) 1 exemplaar
Adulterio in America Centrale 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
McSweeney's Issue 23 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern): Still Going Strong Like Castro (We Meant Ramón) (2007) — Medewerker — 290 exemplaren
McSweeney's Issue 42 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern): Multiples (2013) — Translator/Contributor — 62 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Officiële naam
- Martin, Clancy W.
- Geboortedatum
- 1967
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- Canada
Leden
Besprekingen
Lijsten
Prijzen
Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk
Gerelateerde auteurs
Statistieken
- Werken
- 21
- Ook door
- 5
- Leden
- 433
- Populariteit
- #56,454
- Waardering
- 3.8
- Besprekingen
- 29
- ISBNs
- 49
- Talen
- 4
Deeply aware of the depth that his topic begs for, Martin’s book sprawls in many different directions. It’s in the main part a memoir, then a kind of intellectual history of suicide, and finally a kind of self-help/how-to guide which the title wryly nod to.
Despite struggling with depression for most of my life, I can say that I’ve never been genuinely suicidal. I’ve done my best to support loved ones through ideation and actual attempts. I don’t think I would recommend this book to someone who is ok the emotional brink that Martin describes himself as being on for most of his life. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, as I don’t think it’s a reflection of the quality of the book, but so much of the book’s time is spent detailing the squalor Martin found himself in through his struggles with alcohol and depression, culminating in a number of attempts. I usually hate it when someone describes a work of art as “depressing” but this book at times, literally is - Martin is terrifyingly honest about certain heartbreaking and downright shameful chapters of his life, I almost started to understand why offing himself might feel preferable to carrying on. I could imagine this being (at the risk of using a loaded word) triggering for anyone who is already struggling with thoughts of suicide.
That being said, towards the end of the book I think there are some very neat insights in the mechanisms of the depressed brain, some from Martin himself and some quotes from others. Modern pharmaceuticals have saved many lives, but the medication solution can sometimes obscure the central hallucinations of the depressive mind. Self-imposed inertia, perfectionism, delusions/impossible aspirations to grandeur all contribute to the depressed state as any chemical imbalance. Unlike a chemical imbalance, they aren’t as neatly solved, and an essential part of Martina’s book is the long journey towards realizing maybe they can’t be fixed, and that an essential part of coming to terms with depression is making peace with the fact that we are imperfect, unperfectable beings. To deny this is to trap yourself in a spiral of deflations and disappointments.… (meer)