Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression

This might well be the Age of Depression. More people than ever now experience the disease directly or see a friend or relative succumb to it. Among their number is Gwyneth Lewis. And she set about writing this book simply because she wished something like it had existed for her when she was in the middle of her depression. Depression is assassination. The depressive is both victim and detective - charged with tracking down the perpetrator of his or her own murder. By drawing on her own experience of struggling with the affliction, by highlighting ways of coping, ways of truth-telling, and ways of thriving, in a straightforward, robust fashion full of casual wisdom and easy wit, Gwyneth re-embarks on a journey that nearly killed her first time round and returns with this, perhaps the first truly undogmatic, undemanding, downright useful book about depression.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. 1. Day for Night. 2. Previous Convictions. 3. Basic Investigative Guidelines. 4. My Life as a Ghost. 5. Portrait of a Missing Person. 6. A Resurrection. 7. Identifying the Body. 8. The Alibi That Wouldn't Let Go. 9. Learning to Fall. 10. A Reliable Witness. 11. Dos in Depression. 12. Burying the Dead. Acknowledgements.

About the Author :
Gwyneth Lewis was appointed Wales' first National Poet in 2005. She has published six books of poetry in Welsh and English, as well as four libretti for the Welsh National Opera. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of the Welsh Academy and a NESTA Fellow. She spent three years in the US as a Harkness Fellow.

Review :
Sunbathing in the Rain is undoubtedly the best book I have ever read about one person's experience of depression. This upbeat, very readable and engaging view of depression as a temporary retrenchment, a breathing space in which to adjust better to life, makes encouraging reading. Gwyneth Lewis writes with clarity, beauty and metaphorical precision. She conveys the darkness, the silence, the selfishness, the mental clutter of depression brilliantly. Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis shares her personal story of wrestling with clinical depression and describes what she learned along the way about coping with the disease. The text is aimed primarily at those who are currently depressed and are struggling to recover. The emphasis throughout is on the healing power of self-acceptance and truth-telling. This is a reprint of a book first published in London by Flamingo in 2002.