On Agoraphobia
28 April 2022Synopsis
If we’re talking agoraphobia, we’re talking books. I slip between their covers, lose myself in the turn of one page, re-discover myself on the next. Reading is a game of hide-and-seek. Narrative and neurosis, uneasy bedfellows sleeping top to toe.
When Graham Caveney was in his early twenties he began to suffer from what was eventually diagnosed as agoraphobia. What followed...
Details
28 April 2022
9781529057713Reviews
Never less than completely absorbing, simply because [Caveney] is such a nimble, exact writer, able to move swiftly but unjarringly between daft jokes and serious reflections. His descriptions of the toll the condition takes on his mental health are horrifying in their precision, but that precision makes them beautiful at the same time...the book has the merit of timeliness, in addition to its eloquence and refreshing sense of being totally unconfected
Telegraph
Intellectually curious, emotionally bracing and immensely erudite. . .bright and funny, and full of telling quotes. . .it will hearten people who have agoraphobia, enlighten medics and teach outsiders all the lessons Caveney has learned Blake Morrison, Guardian
A strange and many-headed work that melds personal experience with cultural criticism....thoughtful, humane and unjustly enjoyableSunday Times
One of my favourite living writers: intelligent, lucid and, most impressive of all, funny – even when he’s writing about the most difficult subjects.Jonathan Coe
