Chapter 1, Full of Promise Summary and Analysis

Wurtzel compares depression to being more like a cancer. It grows slowly over time and then suddenly, bam! It's there and threatening your life and every daily action. Wurtzel wasn't raised by crazed hippie parents — quite the opposite. They were fully immersed in their marriage and with Elizabeth when the cultural revolution began. However, when they became discontent with each other, they didn't stick it out together. They divorced.

When they divorce, it becomes quite clear how different these two people really are. While Wurtzel's mother urges her to have a solid, middle-class upbringing, her father encourages her to live off the land and be an artist. They divorce by the time that Wurtzel is two, but their divorce causes them to fight and places Wurtzel wholly in the middle of their arguments. Wurtzel...