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  • The Center Cannot Hold

  • Written by: Elyn R. Saks
  • Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
  • Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (28 ratings)

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The Center Cannot Hold

Written by: Elyn R. Saks
Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
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Publisher's Summary

Professor of psychiatry Elyn R. Saks writes about her struggle with schizophrenia in this unflinching account of her mental illness. In The Center Cannot Hold, Saks draws readers into a nightmare world of medications, a misguided health-care system, and social stigmas. But she would not be defeated. With a strength and force of will that most can only imagine, Saks reclaimed her life and went on to achieve great success.
©2007 Elyn R. Saks (P)2007 Recorded Books, LLC
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What the critics say

"In this engrossing memoir, Saks...demonstrates a novelist's skill of creating character, dialogue, and suspense." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Center Cannot Hold

Average Customer Ratings
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EVERYONE NEEDS THIS BOOK

Throughout my time listening to this amazing book, My view of people that suffer from serious mental health problems changed drastically. It helped me see that even people that seem completely detached from reality can still comprehend what is happening around them and can benefit from interactions with kind, caring people. We need to treat everyone with kindness and respect and not be scared of things we don't understand.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Educational

This book was insightful and educational. Truly a look into schizophrenia from a first hand perspective. Family members and friends of schizophrenics should listen to this for perspective and understanding but most of all hope! #Audible1

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

incredible book with an incredible story

This book is absolutely fantastic. It really paints a good picture of what certain disorders feel like. The story of this woman is impressive and I cried like 20 times.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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a thoughtful and heavy read

The narrator was key with this material. the novel was heavy most of the way through, but thoughtully written yo not make the reader uncomfortable, but intrigued and curious. Such an intense topic, but well paced and delivered.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The author’s compassion, humour, and excellent writing makes this book a great piece of literature.

This woman is the most interesting person, so quirky, so lovely. I’m so grateful she wrote and published her story. It’s a book and story I’ll remember and come back to through my life, I can already tell. Her insight into her illness and her ability to describe her psychosis in such detail makes this memoir readable and interesting and herself very relatable. I loved this book and would recommend it to everyone. ❤️

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book - wacky accent work from the perforer 😵‍💫

The book is phenomenal, very very good. The performance is very very weird. It's fine until the plot moves to England, the performer starts doing really terrible British accents for all the British characters and then kind of loses the plot with the narrator/author's voice. The accent waivers between British to American and everything in between, all within one sentence, it's VERY disorienting and kind of hilarious. It's sometimes almost halting and unsure, like the actor knows this isn't going well but can't stop? I've never heard anything like it on an audiobook. The result is a really weird kind of surreal experience. I don't think it's the desired effect since the author/narrator is describing the anguish of losing her mind and being on a psych ward, so I don't think "wacky" is what they were going for? Anyways, great book, VERY weird choices being made by the voice actor.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sound editing is awful - great story

The sound editing in this book is straight up lazy. The performer was excellent but chapters would be cut off abruptly sometimes mid word. You could hear pages being turned and other faint noises. All of this could easily be fixed.

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1 person found this helpful