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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult, May 29, 2010
This review is from: Invisible Driving (Paperback)
I saw this book mentioned several times while reading other reviews on Amazon. There were a lot of positive responses, so I took a chance. Unfortunately the book is poorly written and difficult to read. The author tries too hard to make his writing style unique and quirky; as a result the story suffers. It might be interesting enough to flip through in a car wreck kind of way, but it's not for serious reading.
On a side note, I just discovered that the author floods the comments of other book reviews with glowing suggestions of his own book. Yet another reason not to always trust the star reviews on Amazon. I suspect that most of these 5 & 4 star reviews are posted by the author himself. (or friends and family.) You can clearly see that many of them have only made one review and have been inactived for a long period of time.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
...there and back, and much improved by the journey, January 19, 2007
This review is from: Invisible Driving (Paperback)
Reading Invisible Driving, as I now have several times, I can't help wondering what sort of cab driver Alistair McHarg would be, and I don't guess I'd want to find out (though I'm sure it would be amusing). But I'll say this: he's unparalleled as a tour guide through the mess one's mind can become when the science experiment we call the brain goes just a little off spec.
I read much of this book in horror. And much of it in fits of laughter. And much of it in mute admiration at the courage McHarg must have had to summon to recall, and relive in order to recreate and confront the prolonged misery of the manic depressive rollercoaster ride. Sometimes, I felt all those at once.
It's been my blessing as well as, I suppose, my curse to have had as close friends many brilliant, creative, but ultimately self-destructive people. And I've lost too many of them far too soon. That McHarg has been able to survive is in itself one of his great personal triumphs. That we readers can become the lucky beneficiaries of his wonderfully told story is a triumph we can proudly share with him.
Others will make the inevitable comparisons to help you relate to what you may be in store for when you read Invisible Driving. Yes, it's got the all of the elements of suspense and character and story and insight and humor that we prize in our entertainment. All of which is to say, it's a good read--no it's better than that, lifted by a skill in narration and a fluency in language that puts McHarg in the company of Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett. But this book was destined for greatness the day he decided to peel himself up off the ocean floor and write it. In a literary sea swimming with too many opportunistic and ravenous sharks, this book is a beacon, flashing madly, but reliably, to help us find our way back through the mind's storms and, at last, to safe harbor. On my wish list before it was even written, it is among the most optimistic works of literature and memoir that I have ever read.
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Steal this BOOK!, June 6, 2007
This review is from: Invisible Driving (Paperback)
Yikes! Even if you experience ups and downs well within a standard deviation of the center, this book will scare the zaparoopie out of you. It will also make you laugh out loud - a LOT!
McHarg has achieved the nearly impossible task of describing mental illness with mere words - but what words! He takes you into the eye of the manic hurricane and gives you the lightning, thunder and the sunshine all at once with extended stream of conscious word play that some how makes sense. Not only does he invent words that seem to be exactly right, he turns out phrases of brilliance by the dozen - "exquisite legs as long as a sentence from Faulkner," "cheese not squarely on the cracker," "Her mode of dress was peasant under glass."
Behind it all is a great story which, as others have suggested, would make a great film - all the elements of a box-office smash and an important message as well.
When it's reissued, I think readers would like to see an afterward of sorts. How are things now? Is it still sitting on your shoulder? How are things with Paula, the daughter that was enough to make you face the problem at last?
This is a wonderful and imprtant read!
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