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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 47 customer reviews )
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16 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Difficult May 30, 2010
By mreader
"mreader"
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.
13 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 ...there and back, and much improved by the journey Jan 19, 2007
By A. Stiber
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.
18 of 23 found the following review helpful:
Steal this BOOK! Jun 07, 2007
By F. Burnside
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!
13 of 17 found the following review helpful:
divine absurdity Jan 17, 2007
By Daniel C. Endicott
Invisible driving takes you on a ride, a ride full of clutch popping drag races that disintigrate into backwards down hill no hands free for alls. McHarg's use of language echoes more Coltrane then Hemingway. Scat like, he inserts nonsense words that become sense, thereby illuminating the mind of the manic. You finish the book with a few new adjectives with which you can pepper your daily diatribes, oh and an entirely new picture of the crippling effects of manic depression.
10 of 13 found the following review helpful:
A beautiful ride ... and what a long strange trip it's been! Feb 15, 2007
By Francis X. Baird
For those afflicted with bipolar disorder, for those suffering along with them (or because of them), for anyone wanting to help them, professionally or personally, this is the book for you! A dizzying account of the roller coaster ride of manic depression, the book is written like the rises and falls of the disorder itself. It is all at once a brilliant spotlight that exposes the manic thinking, rationalizations, and erratic behavior that is bipolar disorder, as well as a thoughtful retrospective of the disease by a survivor in recovery. At the same time exhilarating, terrifying, and entertaining, McHarg is, above all, a writer, with a poet's sensibilities, using metaphor, symbolism, and playful twists of language to convey a depth of understanding rarely seen and a depth of description rarely achieved. The result is that the reader not only lives the experience of McHarg in the throes of his illness, but also arrives at an almost clinical understanding of the illness, its impact on life decisions and relationships, and the long road back through recovery. McHarg exposes, with courage, humor, and masterful language, the naked and hungry ego of mania, the terrifying yawn of depression that lies underneath, and the bitter sweet taste of recovery and redemption. Along with Vonnegut's Eden Express, Invisible Driving should be required reading in Medical Schools and Clinical Psychology Programs.
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