Somehow, The Silver
Linings Playbook was turned into an Oscar-winning movie even
though the book on which it was based is weak. They tell the story of a
thirtysomething man who has spent years in a mental hospital and
emerges determined to get his estranged wife back. The book opens with
Pat’s returning to his family home in a New Jersey suburb of
Philadelphia, sustained by his mother and ignored by his father. He
meets a widow—the sister-in-law of his hometown friend—who has issues
of her own. It’s no surprise that their relationship becomes Pat’s
salvation, but the way it develops, and the widow’s own back story, are
hard to believe.
Before we find out what Pat did and why his wife had a restraining
order against him, we endure endless repetition of compulsive workouts
and Philadelphia Eagles fanaticism. Especially annoying is Pat’s
language; he talks like a kindergartner. He doesn’t want to return to
“the bad place” (the mental hospital), and he longs for the end of
“apart time” (the restraining order). It’s impossible to believe that
Pat had been a high school teacher. Despite the upbeat ending, this
book does a disservice to those who suffer with mental illness by
equating it with a low IQ.
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