Rate this book

The Gift Of Adversity: The Unexpected Benefits Of Life's Difficulties, Setbacks, And Imperfections (2013)

by Norman E. Rosenthal(Favorite Author)

3.49 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0399163719 (ISBN13: 9780399163715)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Tarcher

review 1: Written by a psychiatrist who is responsible for putting S.A.D. in our vocabularies ( Seasonal Affective Disorder)one would expect some insights and uplifting words.. Ahh but he is very smug and self satisfied given to silly aphorisms at the end of each chapter like,"Fortune is fickle.Be generous in victory and dignified in defeat." Though he is Jewish and grew up in South Africa his memories reflect little pain or perception and no literary insight into his life there.He is not someone I would wish to talk too. He seems cold, and relies not on insight or perception but on medicine. He glibly and agreeably quotes William James ,"that we do not cry because we are sad. We are sad because we cry." Really?!!!!! this is an idea he uses when writing the chapter about Myste... moreries of Moods..What really got to me and made me put this book down was when he wrote about visiting a hospital for black South Africans during the rule of apartheid."It was heartbreaking to see so many daily tragedies of people who could have been saved if only.. if only they had understood the gravity of their situation, if only they had been able to take a few days off to get the problem sorted out sooner." Yeah, right, if only they hadn't been oppressed, robbed on their freedom , if only they hadn't been struggling to feed their families, living a subservient life, if only they did not have to work in the mines, if only they hadn't lived under the racially oppressive government of the ruling white South Africans!
review 2: Actually the author basically has said which we never realise happens in the normal flow of life. A person who has lost everything or has nothing much to lose ( that is what we call adversity ) will usually take risks and do everything and fight to get a grip on life. Again not everyone is able to do this and some give in to helplessness. But adversity does make you look at life differently and makes you take risks which you would not otherwise take and sometimes it makes you wildly successful. Having said that the results for each person who picks up that fight varies with the various permutations and combinations that life hands him when he embarks on their journey. Basically it reaffirms the saying Circumstances that do not kill you make you stronger.... less

Download links for: The Gift of Adversity: The Unexpected Benefits of Life's Difficulties, Setbacks, and Imperfections

Advertising