Prozac Diary

The confessional memoir-as-healing, overly used of late as an autobiographer's thumb-sucking exercise, can make the reader feel like an uncomfortable eavesdropper. But with the brutally honest and brave Prozac Diary, Slater reminds us that a writer's true gift — and power — lies in the ability to generously turn what seems like a specific experience into a universal one. While nominally about Slater's struggle with mental illness (which she first described in 1996's Welcome to My Country), this poetically told tale becomes not merely about Prozac and the author's journey to health, but the journey to finding oneself. A-