Book Report: 'Prozac Nation' by Elizabeth Wurtzel; 'Noble House' by James Clavell

I never really understood how it feels to be completely, clinically and almost mortally depressed. 'Prozac Nation' written from personal agony by Elizabeth Wurtzel is an almost painful self-examination of what goes through your head when you're thinking about ending it all. While its well written, it does become a bit tedious, if for no other reason than she's so consistently depressed and goes from doctor ?o doctor, has?fights with her mother and ends up in bed with the wrong guys. Its almost sadly predictable self-destruction. If you've ever been there (or thought you have), read it to reassure yourself there are people worse off than you. If you've never been curious about what it must be like to slit your wrists just to see if you have the guts, then you're probably better off skipping it.


'Noble House' by James Clavell took me entirely too long to read, but its not the book's fault. Well, I suppose its 1370 pages could've slowed me down a bit. I borrowed it from my friend Shannon when I went visiting, figuring I should read it since I enjoyed the previous and connected story of 'Tai-Pan'. This story happens some three generations later, with the same family and its struggle to stay atop Hong Kong in the 1960s. There are so many well developed characters, plots and subplots that I think at one point I was confusing people in the book for people in my own life. It was that engrossing.

On the down side, and there's really only one, the close of the book made it seem like Mr. Clavell received an urgent call from his publisher demanding to see the draft immediately. As a result, he created an all too abrupt ending conveniently tying up ends that probably should have been left dangling. I won't ruin it by saying how, but if you do read it, consider stopping 100 pages before the end to save yourself the urge to throw the book at the wall for cheating itself out of being completely and thoroughly excellent.