Darkness Visible
by William Clark Styron
Darkness Visible by William Styron is a memoir about his own terrible depression. Styron was a gifted novelist and author (his most well-known novel was probably Sophie’s Choice) and Darkness Visible is one of the most brilliant books for conveying what depression is actually like for the person going through it.
Recommendations from our site
“Styron rightly talks of the ferocious inwardness of pain and the aching solitude of pain. These feelings occur in all types of chronic pain, whether psychological or physical.” Read more...
David Biro, Medical Scientist
“There’s a joke about depression that if you describe it you haven’t had one. But the difficulty in describing depression is exactly why Styron’s Darkness Visible is such a masterpiece. It’s not a novel. It’s about his own depression, and it’s extraordinary – one of the best.” Read more...
Lewis Wolpert, Biologist
“He is just about to kill himself when he listens to Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody. The voice of the alto makes him realize that his mother used to sing that piece to him when he was small.” Read more...
Johanna Reiss, Children's Author
Our most recommended books
-
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
by Safiya Sinclair -
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov -
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape
by Lauret Savoy -
The Periodic Table
by Primo Levi -
How Should A Person Be?
by Sheila Heti -
The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S Grant and Elizabeth Samet (editor), Mark Bramhall (narrator)
