Bloggy Book Club : Rage Against the Meshugenah

This month's Bloggy Book Club choice was Rage Against the Meshugenah by Danny Evans who is the author of a very popular blog Dad Gone Mad. His writing has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Southwest Airlines Spirit, Orange Coast, and other national and regional publications.

From the back cover:
In his revealing, funny, and no holds-barred memoir, Danny Evans takes us on his "heartbreaking and hilarious" odyssey from having it all one moment and plunging into a crushing depression the next. He confronts his dependency on beer and porn, his innermost demons, and the hidden truths about his family in a raw and honest account. Nothing is off limits on his quest- not even analysis of the most embarrassing and inconvenient sexual side effects of his get-well medication. It's enough to drive a man insane. But Danny learns the hard way that he may have to go a little crazy in order to find his way home.

While my brother was in college and I was living the life of a busy young mother, my brother recommended I read A Time to Kill by John Grisham. It has a lovely dedication to his wife, and then on page two a 10 year old is raped and... I.stopped.reading. My brother asked me a month later how I liked it and I told him I couldn't read it...it was too difficult. He begged me to pick it up and finish it and I did and to this day it remains one of my favorite books.
That experience taught me a lesson, when I get to a difficult part... I... keep... reading.

Rage Against the Meshugenah had some difficult parts for me but I kept reading and I am so glad I did. This is a very good book about a topic I don't think many people have written so graphically and honestly about.
Depression affects many people and I think even more go undiagnosed in this country and we all have different methods of trying to cope or self-medicate.

I was uncomfortable with the authors detailed description of his porn dependency issues...
I am sure I am some kind of repressed feminist but it still made me uncomfortable. But, this author's honesty was transparent and I appreciate the courage that took to express that struggle.

That being said..."It is laugh out loud funny"....
I was reading this book in public many times...laughing loudly.
Someone would always ask what are you reading...I would explain it was a memoir about a man's crushing depression and his dependency on porn and beer!

That would look genuinely perplexed and I would reply...

"It's a comedy!"

This is a great book but not for the faint hearted!

PS...At the end of the book he has a touching acknowledgement to Sharon his wife...
Well, let me just say John Grisham couldn't have done better!