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A review by ascannerdorkly
Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir by Sarah Fawn Montgomery
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.5
2.5 stars, really - I appreciate what this book set out to do more than I appreciate what it actually did.
The author writes about her own experience and perspective - that’s fine, but she sometimes conflates her experience with *the* experience of white women in america. the chapter on her eating disorder particularly bothered me - why not begin to discuss the ways we can change this? she wrote about it like it is fact that girls are not to eat more than one slice of pizza. fuuuuuuck that.
i was also bothered by the way she wrote about anxiety, OCD, and her ED as completely separate things in her life, as if they weren’t intertwined.
I felt that this book really needed a better editor. Some timelines made no sense at all (and at one point she talks of how anxiety can do this to a person — yes, but in a separate narrative, make it make sense!). there were also times i felt she repeated herself. while largely well written, the editing was very frustrating.
i also felt like there was a bit of exaggeration. maybe its just me not trusting memoirs after “a million little pieces”… but …. could also be the editing?
thinking of thin, cis white women (albeit ones with mental health problems) as victims seems near-sighted. i appreciate her perspective on disability and the working class, but i really felt like the author has a perspective of herself as perpetual victim and as someone who’s worked to change that narrative for themself, this was frustrating..
The author writes about her own experience and perspective - that’s fine, but she sometimes conflates her experience with *the* experience of white women in america. the chapter on her eating disorder particularly bothered me - why not begin to discuss the ways we can change this? she wrote about it like it is fact that girls are not to eat more than one slice of pizza. fuuuuuuck that.
i was also bothered by the way she wrote about anxiety, OCD, and her ED as completely separate things in her life, as if they weren’t intertwined.
I felt that this book really needed a better editor. Some timelines made no sense at all (and at one point she talks of how anxiety can do this to a person — yes, but in a separate narrative, make it make sense!). there were also times i felt she repeated herself. while largely well written, the editing was very frustrating.
i also felt like there was a bit of exaggeration. maybe its just me not trusting memoirs after “a million little pieces”… but …. could also be the editing?
thinking of thin, cis white women (albeit ones with mental health problems) as victims seems near-sighted. i appreciate her perspective on disability and the working class, but i really felt like the author has a perspective of herself as perpetual victim and as someone who’s worked to change that narrative for themself, this was frustrating..