Rach's Reading Club 2024

It's Kind of a Funny Story

For my first book of March, I read, It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. The somewhat ironic title basically states why you want to read this book and if that doesn't make the point the whole story then there's this laudatory quote on the cover:

A book about depression which is not at all depressing

I agree completely with this quote except that now it is kind of depressing because of something that--if you don't know already-- I'll get to in a minute.

But the book itself is about a likeable teenage boy who suffers from depression and almost commits suicide. Fortunately, his family is very supportive and check him into a psychiatric ward. In the ward, he meets several colorful characters and even falls in love with one of them.

Some of the moments which stand out for me include a scene where a psychiatrist asks the protagonist if he was sexually abused. He says, "No, if only I were, I'd have something to focus on." That's part of the problem with clinical depression. Unlike depression caused by traumatic event, you don't even know why you have it and you don't know how to deal with it.

Another sad part was when protagonist was advised by both the psychiatrists and his fellow inmates become close friends with the other patients in the ward. The psychiatrists say it's because he has to focus on his own healing. The inmates say it's because you never know when one of them might go away someplace else. It seems like terrible advice because wouldn't people who are depressed benefit from friendships?

Anyway, here's the thing. I knew nothing about the author of this book when I started, but halfway through I decided to Google him. Learning his date of birth made me envy him because it meant he wrote this book when he was younger than I am now. Clearly he's had a more successful career. Learning his date of death made me realize that he died when he was younger than I am now.

And how did he die?

He committed suicide in approximately the same way the character in the book contemplates it.

I tried not to think of that while reading the rest of the book, which ultimately ended on an upbeat note.

The book is indeed a very readable story, but it's kind of hard to separate it from its history.