Amy Koppelman

I can't remember the last time I read a book I disliked as much as I disliked this one. After 188 pages, you haven't gotten any where. The language is vulgar, the sex graphic and neither of those things is necessarily needed in the context of the book. If it's necessary, then I don't have a problem with it, but I really felt it could have been toned down here. I didn't like the writing style. I felt like Koppelman couldn't decide if she was writing poetry or prose and a great deal of the writing made no sense to me.… (mehr)

I can't remember the last time I read a book I disliked as much as I disliked this one. After 188 pages, you haven't gotten any where. The language is vulgar, the sex graphic and neither of those things is necessarily needed in the context of the book. If it's necessary, then I don't have a problem with it, but I really felt it could have been toned down here. I didn't like the writing style. I felt like Koppelman couldn't decide if she was writing poetry or prose and a great deal of the writing made no sense to me.… (mehr)

I really enjoyed this book. Dr. Susanna Seliger is an expert in her field which extremely hard to treat depression. She protects herself by not sharing her own feelings. This is her defense from falling apart herself. But she opens herself to her client, Jim. She finally gives in and tells about her brother who she always wondered if she could have saved from his depression.

This book is so very easy for me to relate to. My whole family has had depression in one form or another and I have also lost my brother to it. Amy Koppleman know depression. She knows that there are times when other are talking about mundane things and you are wondering about things that you can’t talk about at least at that time. She knows the deep, deep wound that never quite heals, the anger, the grief and the feeling of being left, the memories that slide in and out of your life, most of all the pain.

I didn’t want to lay this book down. It is not a book that goes from the past to the present, instead it jumps around. But that is how our lives are. Something will trigger a memory and if we can will stay with it and either feel the joy or the pain.

I received this finished copy of Hesitation Wounds from the publisher as a win from FirstReads but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review.… (mehr)

This is a sad book which is the author's excellent debut. I was most affected by the depth of emotion that is incorporated into this novel.

Julie Davis is a young married mother of a toddler. She suffers from chronic depression and has just been released from a psychiatric hospital. Short, clipped sentences reveal Julie's thought process which is at times hopeful, but at other times despairing. We learn that she had a difficult relationship with her father who abandoned her mom when Julie was just a little girl. In her married life, Julie enters a situation in which she must come off of her anti-depressant medication for a short while. We watch the difficulties of this and always hope the best for Julie.

I recommend this book to those who wish to read about mental illness, depression, alienation, or difficulties with parenting.… (mehr)