Editing Prozac Nation (section)

== Reception ==

Reviews were mixed. In ''[[The New York Times]]'',  [[Michiko Kakutani]] characterized ''Prozac Nation'' as "by turns wrenching and comical, self-indulgent and self-aware," comparing it with the "raw candor of [[Joan Didion]]'s essays, the irritating emotional exhibitionism of Sylvia Plath's ''[[The Bell Jar]]'' and the wry, dark humor of a [[Bob Dylan]] song." While praising Wurtzel's prose style as "sparkling" and "luminescent," Kakutani thought the memoir "would have benefited enormously from some strict editing" and said that its "self-pitying passages make the reader want to shake the author, and remind her that there are far worse fates than growing up during the '70s in New York and going to Harvard."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/20/books/books-of-the-times-the-examined-life-is-not-worth-living-either.html|title=Books of the Times; The Examined Life Is Not Worth Living Either|first=Michiko|last=Kakutani|date=20 September 1994|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' was ambivalent: "By turns emotionally powerful and tiresomely solipsistic, [Wurtzel's] book straddles the line between an absorbing self-portrait and a coy bid for public attention."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-395-68093-3 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel, Author Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) (317p) ISBN 978-0-395-68093-3 |publisher=Publishersweekly.com |date=1994-08-29 |accessdate=2019-06-02}}</ref>

Writing in ''[[New York Magazine]]'', [[Walter Kirn]] found that although ''Prozac Nation'' had "moments of shapely truth-telling," altogether it was "almost unbearable" and "a work of singular self-absorption."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OOQCAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Prozac+Nation%22+Wurtzel&pg=PA50|title=New York Magazine|first=New York Media|last=LLC|date=5 September 1994|publisher=New York Media, LLC|via=Google Books}}</ref> Calling the book a "tedious and poorly written story of Wurtzel's melodramatic life, warts and all (actually all warts)," Erica L. Werner asked in ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'', "How did this chick get a book contract in the first place? Why was she allowed to write such crap?" Werner also described ''Prozac Nation'' as "obscenely exhibitionistic," with "no purpose other than alternately to bore us and make us squirm." She said that the author "comes off as an irritating, solipsistic brat."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1994/9/29/prozac-nation-elizabeth-wurtzels-unofficial-guide/|title=Prozac Nation: Elizabeth Wurtzel's Unofficial Guide to Whining – News – The Harvard Crimson|website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref>

"It would be possible to have more sympathy for Ms. Wurtzel if she weren't so exasperatingly sympathetic to herself," wrote Ken Tucker in the ''[[New York Times Book Review]]''. He observed, "The reader may well begin riffling the pages of the book in the vain hope that there will be a few complimentary Prozac capsules tucked inside for one's own relief."  <ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/25/books/rambunctious-with-tears.html|title=Rambunctious With Tears|first=Ken|last=Tucker|date=25 September 1994|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' thought the book to be filled with "narcissistic pride" and concluded, "By alternately belittling and belaboring her depression, Wurtzel loses her credibility: Either she's a brat who won't shape up or she needs the drugs. Ultimately, you don't care which."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-wurtzel/prozac-nation/|title=Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel |via=www.kirkusreviews.com}}</ref>