Review: Nothing Was the Same
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsA manic-depressive clinical psychologist finds solace after the death of her husband. Redfield (Psychiatry/Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine; Exuberance: The Passion for Life, 2004, etc.) stunned readers when she recounted her battle with harrowing mental illness in her 1995 memoir An Unquiet Mind. Continuing her journey, the author analyzes her life with celebrated scientist Richard Wyatt, who suffered the recurrence of Hodgkin's disease after 20 years in remission. Persistence and relentless ambition prevented a lifelong battle with dyslexia from impeding Wyatt's collegiate studies. He earned a psychiatric residency at Harvard and went on to become Neuropsychiatry chief at the National Institute of Mental Health. By the end of his life, he was considered a pioneer in the field. Jamison's manic mood swings caused friction early on in their romantic relationship, and though Wyatt was new to love, he cherished Jamison "in a way I never questioned." The ebb and flow of their often turbulent coupling was buoyed by unconditional devotion and extreme patience ("My rage was no match for Richard's wit"), and they married in 1994, only to have Wyatt's cancer recur five years later. Risky stem-cell transplants and high-dose chemotherapy afforded them added time together, but little more than a year later, the cancer took his life. Before his death, they spent languid days of quiet time pondering "only small and binding things." When Jamison admitted to sobbing "But what will I do without you?" and started to prepare funeral arrangements, her ordeal becomes overwhelmingly heart-wrenching. Alone and unmoored, Jamison amazingly skirted the pitfalls of her formerly depressive state and found clarity, managing to make peace with her husband's death. A soul-baring love letter to the author's loving life partner that also addresses the debilitating condition that restricted her from enjoying life to its fullest.
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Michelle - GoodreadsYears ago I read An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison's memoir of her battle with bipolar disorder, for a Freshman Seminar called "Mental Illness and Society", so I was pleased to find a copy of her ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Anna - GoodreadsThis book didn't affect me the way other books about grief have. I am thinking specifically about Joan Didion's books about grieving, or stuff CS Lewis has written, etc. This was a good book, I ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Nina - GoodreadsNothing Was the Same is Jamison's account of her husband's illness, death, and her subsequent struggle to differentiate grief from depression. She brings the same lyrical quality to this book that was ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Karan - Goodreads"The advice I took most to heart, however, was from a friend of mine, a poet, who spoke of the futility of advice. 'I've always handled similar emergencies very badly by working and drinking myself ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Anna - GoodreadsI was looking for a book on grief, and this disappointed me. I preferred Meghan O'Rourke's The Long Goodbye: more beautiful, more insightful, more relatable (for me). This book was mostly an account ... Read full review
She's an expert in her field.
User Review - grannymusiclover - WalmartAlmost everything this author writes is outstanding. She is a leading researcher and authority when it comes to bipolar disorder and all of the life experiences which tend to be it's accomplices. This ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Shonna Froebel - GoodreadsThis memoir is a very intimate look at Jamison's life with her late husband Richard. She talks of her own struggles with bipolar disorder and how her husband helped find a way for the two of them to ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - Abbe - GoodreadsEDITORIAL REVIEW: From the internationally acclaimed author of *An Unquiet Mind,* an exquisite, haunting meditation on mortality, grief, and loss.Perhaps no one but Kay Redfield Jamison—who combines ... Read full review
Review: Nothing Was the Same
User Review - David - GoodreadsA very poignant description of a loving relationship and the grief that follows the loss of a spouse. I expect Jamison to get into a discussion of her grieving process sooner, but the majority of the ... Read full review
