Sunday, August 3, 2008

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

This is the story of fifteen-year-old Craig Gilson who gets accepted to his dream high school. He thinks that after getting accepted, his life will be great! In other words, he believes that this acceptance is just the prelude to getting into a prestigious university, graduate program, finding an excellent job, and having a happy family.

On the contrary, Craig's life begins to fall apart. Diagnosed with clinical depression, Craig is on antidepressives for awhile and starts to feel better. He then stops taking them and is soon thinking about suicide. He calls a Suicide Hotline and checks himself into a psychiatric hospital where he spends five days.

I found this book to be very readable, quirky, and real. There were a couple of sketchy parts that I could have done without. But overall, I think the book did a good job of tackling depression and raising the question of whether of not the so-called good life is really the life we should all be aiming for.

2 comments:

Sandra said...

Did you know there is a content warning when I try to visit your blog now? I think that is funny!

Elaine said...

I know!!! I think it's because I wrote about the book "Sex and the Soul of a Woman"? Hum.