Depression

I quite enjoy this “Mini” series, since it provides a reader with an opportunity to get acquainted with the Author's style and thoughts no strings attached. 
This particular pocket book is edited from the bigger and more broad memoir “Darkness Visible” by William Styron. To get straight to the point, this book succeeds in what it sets out to do, giving you a glimpse of a  immense and aching solitude of a person locked in his self-destructive and agonising thoughts, portrayed carefully and insightfully by Mr. Styron. Even if you understand what the premise of this book is in some way (The title probably gives it away, right?) he still manages to capture your attention and paint a vivid picture of an individual amidst the crisis of self-destruction, leading to the exploration of contemplation of death, suicide mental illnesses and other things carefully united in a dull and bland word that is depression. 
Thus, I would suggest this book to anyone curious/interested in the topic, which is explored by an articulate writer using all the literary tools of a well-established writer together with personal experience to put forward an essay of a disease (in contrast to all the specific and bland medical literature). 
The goal of this book is not only to give you some food for thought, but to point you in the right direction in search of search of your own way of understanding of such a complex and intrinsically malevolent thing that Depression is.

Read this for the second time and realised I had judged it quite poorly the first. It's interesting, well-written, holistic in its approach, and very very important because it makes some key yet generally unacknowledged points about depression that can also apply to mental illnesses in general. Apart from putting the reader in his shoes (William Styron was very severely depressed for a period of his later life), he highlights that depression is difficult to cure because of the idiosyncratic nature of the disease, and because the brain is still largely a mystery to science. Also, mental illnesses are illnesses even though they are often treated as behavioural choices of patients unwilling to make the extra effort at life. Though gloomy at times, it ends on a very optimistic note. Highly recommended!