Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

13 reviews

thebluntbibliophile's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A dysfunctional family, the American Dream and Alzheimer's disease makes for a beautifully depressing read. It's hard to write characters that make the reader feel so strongly as Miller does, even overtly, let alone with such subtlety. I- there are simply no words for it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Moderate: Dementia, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Mental illness

Minor: Emotional abuse and Domestic abuse

waxwicks's review

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Dementia and Suicide

loz1327's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Death of parent and Death

literaryinluv's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

a haunting tale about a family's destruction at the hands of the american dream

2nd time reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Dementia, and Car accident

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Death, Classism, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

bettyemanee's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Took me a while to get used to the play format, but was very worth it. Really sad book, though 😔

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

menomica's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

WILLY [turning on him now in an uncontrolled outburst]: I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!

This play is so weird. I definitely think it would’ve been easier to appreciate as a play itself and not just the playbook (the score is pretty prominent throughout). There’s a lot happening and it switches time pretty often, so it’s a bit confusing sometimes to keep track of what’s going on.

Willy’s a looser!

I know the play literally ends with him dying by suicide he has depression throughout but still: LEWSER. 🤪

like he has this whole thing where he has to project power and charm and influence to make up for the fact that he very much does not have that. Like idk, the way he kind of goaded his sons to be dumb jocks?

the fact that he literally cheated on his wife

major looser behavior! His resentment towards others for being more successful than him? Dweebo!!
Linda was kinda sad cause she kept making excuses for her (cheating) man and I think that speaks to how wifes (especially of that era) we’re basically stuck with their husbands so they’d try to justify all their actions or whatever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Moderate: Dementia and Infidelity

Willy’s not officially diagnosed with dementia, but he does present enough symptoms to the degree where I deadass was like, oh he has dementia and they’re just not saying dementia cause it’s the 40’s and they don’t have the proper vocabulary to articulate this yet» So I’m putting the tw there for ppl who don’t want to read about someone heavily displaying symptoms of dementia

brnineworms's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Here’s the thing: stories written by American authors that challenge the myth of the American Dream often don’t resonate with me, at least not as much as I expect they’re intended to. There’s a cultural disconnect. That fairytale isn’t entrenched in my culture and we don’t really have an equivalent that inspires that same fanatic hope. I haven’t been fed this narrative since birth, I haven’t internalised its message, I have no attachment to it and what it represents. Refutation of a belief I do not hold doesn’t shock me, especially when I find that belief to be, frankly, obvious bullshit. To be fair, Death of a Salesman was written for theatre-going audiences in New York in the 1940s, not some anticapitalist Brit reading the script in book form more than seventy years later.

The titular salesman, Willy Loman, is painfully sympathetic and unsympathetic. He’s a deeply flawed individual who still has value simply by virtue of being human. That’s the idea, at least, but without an actor’s charisma to sell the character, to make me care about him, he’s a little too unpleasant for my liking. Shifting moral standards have no doubt shifted perspectives on Willy. For example, him threatening to beat his kids may have been seen as harsh back in the day but now most people would call that outright abusive. It makes it hard to root for him, though I understand it’s not supposed to be easy to.

Perhaps if I’d seen Death of a Salesman performed instead of reading the script I’d have had a more profound experience. As it stands, I can give a noncommittal shrug and confess it said what Miller wanted it to say but it didn’t speak to me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Sexism, Ableism, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Domestic abuse, Cursing, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and War

tavijs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Death and Death of parent

coriblake's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia and Infidelity

Moderate: Car accident, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, and Death of parent

diego133's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts