“Life is not cured, Mr. Gilner. Life is managed.”
In this time of age, mental health awareness is increasing, yet a lot of people still find it hard to open up about their own mental health. It can be hard to talk about your mental health to others. Depending on who you are or where you are in the world, it might be much easier, or harder, for you to open up about your concerns. At the same time, opening up is an important first step in mental health management. So, I hope whoever you are, in whatever condition you are in, can find a good way to open up about your mental health.
The book that I want to talk about today is a book that took on the story of opening up about mental health. I found this book around 2016 or 2017 when I was still in high school. I was in a library club and we often had excursions to used bookstores in Jakarta. I found this book there and got it for Rp50.000,- (around USD $3.40). It was cheap because it was, you know, used. Books are expensive in this country, let alone imported foreign language books (they tend to have a range of 150k-500k IDR). So the price was good. And it turns out, it was a pretty light and fun read.
It’s Kind of A Funny Story is a 2006 novel written by American novelist, Ned Vizzini. The story revolves around Craig Gilner, a 15-year-old who suffers from depression after getting into the high school of his dreams. After nearly killing himself one night, he checks himself into the hospital. The novel details how his depression started, how it was before he got depressed, and how he ended up spending time in a psychiatric ward for 5 days.
What I Liked: The story itself was simple and interesting. It was straightforward and did not dilly-dally on its explanation. Craig’s feelings were very well-explained. Vizzini’s writing style made me feel like I was talking to a friend, so it was comfortable to read through. 444 pages of this novel did not feel that long. I also like the life lessons spread throughout. There are multiple times in the story where other characters encourage Craig to rethink suicide, even complimenting and appreciating his efforts to not commit suicide. I felt like it encourages the readers too.
I must say that this book hit me with the biggest relatability of any recent book that I’ve read. The way Craig felt and dealt with his depression, his way of thinking, how it affects him both physically and mentally; they hit home. I myself decided to go to a psychologist since last year and have been fighting battles regarding my mental health ever since. I personally feel what Craig feels, so it nice to have it written out by somebody. To read something similar that happened to myself.
Spoiler-ey reviews!
The story ends on a realistic note. Craig did not end up being cured of depression. I mean, he does get better, but he realizes that he can always fall back into it. Depression does not go away that easily, even when you felt like you were getting better after being in a psychiatric ward. One of the messages in the story is that you need to manage the things that are making you depressed and that you need to manage your brain (or rather, your way of thinking) because it has such a big role in depression and how you manage everything in life. Opening up about how you feel is one way to manage your life.
In his case, Craig opened up about his depression. At first, he also thought that by opening up, people would think he was crazy and broken. But if he hadn’t, he would have already been swimming with the fishes under the Brooklyn Bridge. Opening up could save your life, that’s what I get from it. Also, after he went into the hospital, Craig went on a healing process. Letting go of his stress, rethinking his situation, spending time by drawing maps. He finally decided to change schools and pursue art, the one thing that makes him happy and what he feels could make him live life to the fullest.
What I Don’t Like: Craig is so horny that it gets annoying lol. I get that he’s 15 and still growing, but really, man? Do you have to view every girl you meet like that? The way that he viewed girls was just… icky, to say the least. There were lots of sexual references throughout the book. The teenage culture (I refer to parties, weed-smoking, and sex) in my environment is very different from this novel, so I feel very uncomfortable reading those parts. There were also times when I felt that Vizzini was very stereotypical in making his characters, so that was terrible.
In the end, it’s a 3 out of 5 stars. Could’ve been a 4.5 if Craig wasn’t so horny. There are better fiction books that take on the theme of mental health that has fewer unnecessary nasty things in them, so you can read other books than this one. But if you exclude all of the horny stuff, it was a relatable and, you could say, kind of a funny story.
See you in the next Book Spill! /(‘-‘)/
Caution! The novel contains a lot of sexual content throughout, both explicit and implicit (be wary of chapter 40 and chapter 49). It deals with mental illness, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, drugs, and self-harm.
- Indonesia’s Suicide Hotline: 119, lalu tekan 9 lagi
- Online Psychologist Services (IDN) : Ibunda Konseling (+62 812 1719 9596)
- Suicide Hotlines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines
Arato Matsuri's jumbled-up thoughts are sorted in this blog. 