It's Kind of a Funny Story
2006 • 456 pages
Ratings81
Average rating4
15
Ratings81
Average rating4
Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life - which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.
Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.
Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book is fab, if a little slow to begin with. It's very eye-opening and extremely relatable, and the characters are interesting, to say the least.
I've read quite a few coming-of-age novels, and this one starts off in pretty much the same way. Lonely teenager is stressed and nothing seems to be going right. The difference here, and it's a fairly big one, is that the main character is suffering from depression.
The depiction of an adult psychiatric hospital isn't very realistic, but it didn't matter to me. There's an authenticity to the book that made its flaws seem much less important. It's funny, maybe a little sappy, but it's also warm and honest. It's a little too happy for the subject matter, but the characters and their feelings seem real.
RIP Ned Vizzini.
This book helped me put a lot of things in perspective for me during a rather difficult time personally. I read it on a whim and was not despointed in the slightness. I will always recommend reading it to anyone who wants to understand how it feels to struggle with deep chronic depression.
