Table of Contents: Your Voice In My Head

Author: Emma Forrest
Publisher/Year: Random House, 2011
Synopsis: Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just twenty-two and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist—a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life. She was on the brink of drowning, but she was still working, still exploring, still writing, and she had also fallen deeply in love. One day, when Emma called to make an appointment with her psychiatrist, she found no one there. He had died, shockingly, at the age of fifty-three, leaving behind a young family. Reeling from the premature death of a man who had become her anchor after she turned up on his doorstep, she was adrift. And when her all-consuming romantic relationship also fell apart, Emma was forced to cling to the page for survival and regain her footing on her own terms.

Reviews:

The Guardian
"Who knows whether it would have helped but, as she moves on to new psychiatrists and (presumably) new men, you can't help hoping she'll find what she really needs: someone who'll see straight through her and not fall for her oh-so-plausible lines on everything. And then, chillingly, you worry that the very existence of this book will provide her with the one thing she needs like a hole in the head: an audience."

The Globe and Mail
"Being a “messed-up girl” is an experience of being too much: too smart, too sexy, too crazy, too broken, too demanding. And Forrest's memoir succeeds by including the discursive too-much-ness of all that love and sanity. Her story is crushing and complicated, and entirely common."

The New York Times
"[a]protracted meditation on the blessing of self-­transformation — “You’ve struggled,” the rabbi says, “and now you can change” — is profound. Forrest didn’t write it, but through these words we share her insight: there’s something to be said for occasionally listening to a voice other than your own."

The Sunday Times
"Her style is more honest and witty than harrowing… It's difficult to write a convincing tale of depression that's also an entertaining romp, but Forrest has done it."