Tuesday 2 April 2013

Book Review


The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

I don’t want to be in a bad place, where no one believes in silver linings or love or happy endings’

‘It hurts to look at the clouds but it helps, like most things that cause pain.’

A story which is full trials, tribulations and most of all, triumph.

The Silver Linings Playbook is an off-beat romance and a poignant, uplifting story about an optimistic man in his mid-thirties named Pat who is attempting to rebuild his life and moves back into the basement of his parents’ home after being discharged from a mental institution. He is also desperately trying to put an end to his ‘apart time’ with his estranged wife Nikki and hopes for reconciliation. Pat subsequently meets the equally flawed Tiffany who delves into deep desolation and depression whilst grieving over the death of her husband and a tentative bond forms between them.

This journey will take you on a huge trip of emotions and lift your spirits straight to heaven with its very uplifting and positive message. Despite being a generally easy, light read, Silver Linings will definitely challenge your perspective on mental illnesses and attempt to remove all of the negativity and taboos surrounding them. It will allow you to question the nonchalance of people taking medication for conditions as such as aches and pains, sports injuries and asthma as opposed to the taboos of taking medication for mental illnesses. For some reason, society fails to believe that conditions like depression are illnesses.

The only critique that I would have for this book is all of the references to American football, which becomes a cheese grater and seems more like a sports commentary despite its relevance. If you are a Brit who is not a sports buff then it may all seem like a foreign concept.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a unique blend of light humour and serious issues and something that is not too heavy-going. Overall, this book is beautifully written, accessible, funny, and sends a very positive message throughout.

Visit http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/pledgewall to help embrace the cause to de-stigmatise people with mental illnesses and make a change to the negative attitudes and perspectives towards them.


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