Books about Epileptic from Amazon.com

Hailed by The Comics Journal as one of Europe’s most important and innovative comics artists, David B. has created a masterpiece in Epileptic, his stunning and emotionally resonant autobiography about growing up with an epileptic brother. Epileptic gathers together and makes available in English for the first time all six volumes of the internationally acclaimed graphic work.

David B. was born Pierre-François Beauchard in a small town near Orléans, France. He spent an idyllic early childhood playing with the neighborhood kids and, along with his older brother, Jean-Christophe, ganging up on his little sister, Florence. But their lives changed abruptly when Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes. But every new cure ended in disappointment as Jean-Christophe, after brief periods of remission, would only get worse.

Angry at his brother for abandoning him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, Pierre-François learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, creating images that provide a fascinating window into his interior life. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, Epileptic is also a moving depiction of one family’s intricate history. Through flashbacks, we are introduced to the stories of Pierre-François’s grandparents and we relive his grandfathers’ experiences in both World Wars. We follow Pierre-François through his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, all the while charting his complicated relationship with his brother and Jean-Christophe”s losing battle with epilepsy. Illustrated with beautiful and striking black-and-white images, Epileptic is as astonishing, intimate, and heartbreaking as the best literary memoir.


From the Hardcover edition..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

One has good reason to be suspicious of a book that calls itself a "metaphorical memoir." If a metaphor substitutes one thing for another to which it's not ordinarily related, and a memoir relates the personal experiences of the author, then a metaphorical memoir would be... well, lying, if we're going to get technical about it. Or it could be Lying, in which case, hold that judgment and lay all categories aside: here is a book so stunningly contrary it deserves a whole genre to itself.

Lauren Slater may have grown up with epilepsy. Or she may have Munchausen syndrome, "also called factitious illness," also called lying. Or, quite possibly, she has never had any of the above, and all her exquisite evocations of auras and grand mal seizures are merely well-researched symbolic descriptions of her psychic state. In a chapter that's disguised as an extended letter to her editor (and impishly titled "How to Market This Book") she defends her decision to call the work nonfiction:

Why is what we feel less true than what is? Supposing I simply feel like an epileptic, a spastic person, one with a shivering brain; supposing I have chosen epilepsy because it is the most accurate conduit to convey my psyche to you? Would this not still be a memoir, my memoir?

Slater is peering down a slippery slope here, and for all its manifest brilliance, the pyrotechnics of its prose, reading Lying can be an unnerving experience--sort of like hanging out with a compulsive liar, actually. (It's no help to find out that "after all, a lot, or at least some, or at least a few, of the literal facts are accurate.")

But if Slater is playing with our heads, she's not doing so for fashionable postmodern reasons. Lying's bag of tricks emerges from some complex and deeply felt ideas about form, reality, and consciousness itself--and what's more, it's an extraordinary memoir, "true" or not. A field full of nuns, their windblown habits tipping them over into the snow; an electric brain stimulator that makes a patient see colors and taste her own words; Slater rolling in mounds of Barbadian sugar and then running back to her mother, coated like candy--who cares whether any of these actually happened? In the end, Lying is fundamentally true, just as a great novel or indeed any great work of art is true: in a way that has nothing to do with fact. --Mary Park.
Price: $3.20 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From a brilliant new talent comes a riveting novel of chance, fate, and numbers, and one man's strange journey past the boundaries of the possible

David Caine inhabits a world of obsession, rich rewards, and rapid, destructive downfalls. A compulsive gambler and brilliant mathematician prone to crippling epileptic seizures, he possesses the uncanny ability to calculate odds of any hand in the blink of an eye. But one night at an underground poker club, Caine makes a costly mi scalculation, sending his life spinning out of control. Desperate, he agrees to test an experimental drug with unnerving side effects: inexplicable visions of the past, present, and future. Unsure whether he's perceiving an alternate reality or suffering a psychotic breakdown, Caine embarks on a journey that stretches beyond the possible into the world of the improbable. Gradually, he discovers the extent of his astonishing new ability -- but powerful, shadowy forces know Caine's secret. Now Caine must fight for his survival -- and his sanity . . .

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Price: $0.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Gain insight as you read the stories of women living with epilepsy-- told in their own words. Women discuss the impact of epilepsy on their roles as mothers, wives, and individuals, and express their concerns about how epilepsy will affect pregnancy outcome, the health of their babies, and parenting. They share candidly how epilepsy impacts family planning, fertility and sexuality..
Price: $16.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The updated and revised third edition of The Challenge of Epilepsy is informative, inspiring and easy to understand.

If you or someone you know has epilepsy, this book offers help through alternative and complementary solutions for controlling seizures. Some of the methods described in The Challenge of Epilepsy are: EEG biofeedback, nutrition, self esteem, sress management, music, and affirmations..
Price: $17.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Visions: Artists Living with Epilepsy is the art of epilepsy, captured in a book. You will discover beautiful, insightful, haunting images that reveal the souls of artists touched by epilepsy.

* Contains 200+ high-quality reproductions of works of art
* Includes the artists biographies
* CD-ROM of the artwork is also available separately or as part of the Deluxe Edition.
Price: $57.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This enlightening book presents the firsthand personal accounts of children with seizure disorders and their parents. In their own words, these children and parents vividly describe the experiences of handling the crisis of the initial seizure, adjusting to the diagnosis of epilepsy, coping with seizures, managing medications and side effects, and dealing with health care providers, teachers, schoolmates, siblings, and friends. Reveals the terror, uncertainty, and frustration felt by children and parents after an initial seizure or a diagnosis of epilepsy. Documents the ongoing trials, tribulations and triumphs of coping with seizures, medication schedules and side effects, health care providers and hospitals, schoolmates, siblings, relatives and friends. These accounts provide realistic insights into the myriad issues encountered in living with childhood epilepsy. The book also includes a straightforward medical discussion of childhood seizures, written in layperson's terms by Dr. Pellock; a glossary of medical terms; and a guide for schoolteachers and parents written by William Murphy, the Executive Director of the Epilepsy Association of Massachusetts. Appendices provide a directory of Epilepsy Foundation of America affiliates; a list of recommended books, publications, and videotapes; and information about the Epilepsy Foundation of America's Winning Kids program..
Price: $16.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This collection of frank, first-person narratives by people with epilepsy from 21 countries offers unique perspectives on the personal and social aspects of seizure disorders. Reflecting a diverse array of cultures, the narratives reveal many common concerns and show the distinct ways that people around the world affected by epilepsy react to the diagnosis and cope with their families, friends, and communities. The book includes chapters on the Global Campaign Against Epilepsy and a physician's firsthand experience in East Africa..
Price: $16.64 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This second volume of the Atlas of Electroencephalography is devoted to the vast subject of epilepsies, covering them according to modern classification criteria: focal epilepsies, generalised epilepsies, epileptic encephalopathies, specific situations and etiologies, and reflex seizures. As in Volume 1, each electroencephalogram shown is analysed to highlight the most significant features that may be useful for diagnosis and interpretation. Emphasis is placed on the most common types of epilepsy because of the practical nature of the book, but some less well known and more confusing forms are also shown. The book provides a summary of current views on the main categories of epilepsy and doctors who carry out EEGs will find it a valuable aid to interpretation. It is also aimed at all doctors who have to deal with epileptic patients, as well as technicians working in neurophysiology laboratories..
Price: $111.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]