Editorial Review:Product Description:Cory Friedman woke up one morning when he was five years old with the uncontrollable urge to twitch his neck. From that day forward his life became a hell of irrepressible tics and involuntary utterances, and Cory embarked on an excruciating journey from specialist to specialist to discover the cause of his disease. Soon it became unclear what tics were symptoms of his disease and what were side effects of the countless combinations of drugs. The only certainty is that it kept getting worse. Simply put: Cory Friedman's life was a living hell.
AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is the true story of Cory and his family's decades-long battle for survival in the face of extraordinary difficulties and a maddening medical establishment. It is a heart-rending story of struggle and triumph with a climax as dramatic as any James Patterson thriller. (2008)
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Fantastic book
This book was very well written in typical Patterson style, but it wasn't a typical Patterson story. The story was heart warming & wrenching all at the same time, with a happy ending!
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Against Medical Advice
I have read all the books that James Patterson has written. I am used to his style of writting. The way this book was written was not a James Patterson style. So much about Cory, his family and the horrible diease Tourette's syndrome was not even brought up. If the story had been written more like novel it would have not only told the story of Cory Friedman but read more like the James Patterson style. Though I do feel for the Friedman family. I would have liked to have read how Jesse his sister or Cory's mom really dealt with the pressure of living with a family member with Tourette's syndrome. My advise is Do Not Buy this Book
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A fascinating story...
I'm a huge fan of James Patterson. I think I've read every book he's ever written, including the ones for teens (the Maximum Ride series and The Dangerous Days of Daniel X). I especially like his Women's Murder Club series. He's a great writer when it comes to fiction. And, now it seems he can add writing non-fiction to his list of accomplishments. "Against Medical Advice" grabbed my attention from the first page and had me turning page after page with eager anticipation.
It's a heart-wrenching (as well as a heart-warming) story of a young boy afflicted with a severe case of Tourette's syndrome. The doctors don't know how to treat him, so they keep feeding him medical cocktails in an effort to control his behavior. The drugs don't work; they just sedate him (leading to ADD) and depress him (adding depression to his list of maladies). Some of the drugs simply intensify his problems. How Cory Friedman makes it through this awful time in his life (lasting from age 5 to age 17) is a story that should tug at your heart. It also offers insights into a medical condition that you don't hear much about.
I believe that because the story is written in first-person, it makes it more readable - even though it wasn't written by Cory, it was co-authored by James Patterson and Cory's father, Hal Friedman. The writing is vivid and fast-paced.
My only criticism of this non-fiction book is it left me a bit confused. The book starts out with Cory at age 17, when he "escapes" being confined to Dressler Psychiatric Hospital, where his parents have taken him for treatment in the hopes they might be able to help him. What they find there is both discouraging and frightening, and Cory does not want to stay. They take him home AMA (against medical advice - - hence, the name of the book). But, from there, the narrative flashes back to the beginning of the problem, at age 5 when his "tics" begin, and ends at age 17 again. But, the opening scene is never quite explained in the chronology of the rest of the story. That aside, I give it 5 stars anyway, for being so well-written.
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quick read, easy to read
I read this book in about 4 hours,it is interesting and
once you get started you do want to see how it turns out. But it is not a "keeper", just get it from the library.
You won't learn much about Tourettes, but you will learn a lot about the medical establishment's compulsion to prescribe medications and keep on prescribing regardless of the consequences.
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True story that will move you
I had no idea what having Tourette's syndrome was like; i.e., until
I read AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE by James Patterson and Hal
Friedman . . . it is a true story about how one family dealt with
the reality of having to deal with this debilitating illness.
As Cory, the son with Tourette's indicates:
* I once told my parents that they couldn't live through a single day
with what I go through every day of my life, and that was when I was
a lot better than I am now.
The book is written in his voice. I'm glad the authors went in that direction
because it conveys more powerfully what it must have been like
to have gone through a 13-year journey of both medication and
treatment.
For example, I actually cringed when I read what he had to experience
just to get through school:
* I finally entered high school, and the biggest surprise is that nothing
has really changed. It's turning out to be as much of a minefield as middle
school. Instead of becoming nicer as they've grown up, some of the
meanest kids have become smarter at using my weaknesses for fun
and games. It's as important as ever for them to look cool, and they
do it by putting down others who are different or have problems. I'm an
easy target, and it makes me feel bad just about every single day
of high school.
I was particularly moved by one passage, toward the end of the book,
when his mother made an impassioned plea to get him back into school:
"Let's be honest," she says, her voice suddenly more relaxed but still serious.
"You all know that this isn't about only rules or the number of hours Cory has
physically sat in classes. You have enough reason to help him keep going if
you want to. That's what it really comes down to. Taking what he has been
able to do here so far, thinking about all the amazing things he's achieved out
of school, and helping him to build on them, helping him to keep going, like you
always have before. You've always been on his side. Most of you have been
wonderful to him. Why turn your backs on him now?"
You'll be moved by AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE, and you'll find yourself
rooting for Cory and his family . . . it is a book I highly recommend.
