Rage Against The Meshugenah

01 — Project details

Danny's first book is a memoir about his experience with clinical depression in 2001.

02 — Creative process

I sent a book proposal to 12 different literary agents and they each said no. The twelfth rejecter, a fierce but generous New York agent named Karen Gerwin (who had previously worked with the author of Freakanomics), gave Danny the pointed advice he needed to make his own book more viable for publication.

After a complete proposal rewrite and some fine-tuning with Gerwin, the book was sold to an imprint of Penguin USA called New American Library.

It took nine months to complete the 80,000-word manuscript.

A male writing about mental health was still quite rare in 2009. Discussing therapy, antidepressant medication, and deep feelings of shame and inadequacy were foreign to men. But it did find an unexpected secondary audience.

Shortly after the book's release Danny began to receive emails expressing gratitude from the women in depressed men's lives. In almost every case, the sentiment was, "Thank you for helping me understand what my husband/dad/boyfriend/uncle/son/etc. is going through. Thank you for helping me see depression from his perspective."

The book was not a commercial success but the non-financial rewards have been endless.