Underneath the Lemon Tree
A Memoir of Depression and Recovery
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4.5 • 24 Ratings
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
On paper, things looked good for Mark Rice-Oxley: wife, children, fulfilling job. But then, at his 40th birthday party, his whole world crumbled as he succumbed to depression...
How many men do you know who have been through periods when their lives haven't seemed right? How badly askew were things for them? Many men suffer from depression yet it is still a subject that is taboo. Men often don't visit the doctor, or they don't want to face up to feelings of weakness and vulnerability. By telling his story, Mark Rice-Oxley hopes it will enable others to tell theirs. In this intensely moving memoir he retraces the months of his utmost despair, revisiting a landscape from which at times he felt he would never escape.
Written with lyricism and poignancy, Mark captures the visceral nature of this most debilitating of illnesses with a frightening clarity, while at the same time offering a sympathetic and dispassionate view of what is happening, and perhaps why. This is not a self-help book but a memoir that is brimful of experience, understanding and hope for all those who read it. It is above all honest, touching and surprisingly optimistic.
Customer Reviews
Underneath the lemon tree
I have read this book in 3 solid days as I just could not stop. It has felt like a close friend beside me understanding how I feel more than anyone else. I could point to phrases and lines that are almost exactly the same as I have written in my own diary of my depression and as Mark points out it makes me feel this is just part of being human and I am not alone with this thing! The only thing I feel sad about is that I have come to the end of the book and now have to continue with my recovery on my own.