The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR Like Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, The Noonday Demon digs deep into personal history, as Andrew Solomon narrates, brilliantly and terrifyingly, his own agonising experience of depression. Solomon also portrays the pain of others, in different cultures and societies whose lives have been shattered by depression and uncovers the historical, social, biological, chemical and medical implications of this crippling disease. He takes us through the halls of mental hospitals where some of his subjects have been imprisoned for decades; into the research labs; to the burdened and afflicted poor, rural and urban. He talks to faith healers and voyages around the world in a quest for folk wisdom. He analyses the medications of today as well as reviewing the politics of diagnosis and treatment and, perhaps most significantly, he looks at the vital role of will and love in the process of recovery.

One of the most difficult books I have read in my life. It's not that it's hard to read, quite the opposite actually, the author has a very eloquent and captivating style of writing.
The difficulty lies in the subject of the book. Although it is a very thorough and all-encompassing book on depression, knowing thy enemy does not give you an advantage, at least not in this case. There is no Achiles' heel when battling with depression. You might seek a way to circumvent it, but as the author explains with countless examples, this endeavour is pointless, unless you've resigned yourself to suicide, which is nothing but a permanent solution to a (somewhat) temporary affliction. You learn to live with it, notice your triggers, become humble, let go and be grateful for the sunny day in an otherwise grim English summer.
My only regret is that the author focused a lot on medicine (antidepressants, ECT) and not enough on therapy and alternative medicine. There have been a few drugs and rituals that he has indeed tested on himself, but by far not all and not the most important ones.

I was full of trepidation at the heaviness of the subject here, but in the end I am very glad I read it. He investigates depression from every angle including the view from his own break-ups, and talks to all sorts of people in many walks of life and parts of the world.

This was a beautifully written and gripping book. I read the portions assigned for a class but I can't read more than that right now. I do think I should come back at some point and read the rest, but during the middle of a pandemic and when society seems to be going through a low-grade cultural depression is probably not that time for me.