It's Kind of a Funny Story

It's that time of the month again! That's right, it's time for another book to praise critique! For the month of March, I have decided to do something I thought I would never do, re-read a novel. I once thought that once I've finished a book, I've conquered it, and re-reading something you already know would be tedious. But I realized I was wrong when I decided to read It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. The only thing that made me pick this title up once again was because I'd forgotten what the story was about, but I knew that I really loved it. And to start off this review I'll give the summary of the story (free of spoilers, of course).

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Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story

Summary

It's Kind of a Funny Story is set in New York City where 15-year-old Craig Gilner gets into Executive Pre-Professional High School, one of the most prestigious schools in the city. Craig is elated as a year of constant studying for the entrance exams rewards him enrollment into the school which he believes will be the key to his success. To him, success is getting a good job, house and family, which he can only achieve by getting a good education, which he'll get the best of from this particular school. After finding that the work he has to do for school is too much for him to handle, he spirals into depression, eventually getting himself admitted into a psychiatric hospital. During his stay, he meets different kinds of people who have their own stories, discovers old talents he had forgotten about, and battles depression by finding things in life that are worth living for. 

Writing Style

The story is narrated in the first-person perspective of Craig, which, I find, is very effective in this type of book. I find that the first-person narrative works well since there are many things that goes on in the mind of a person who suffers depression, and I found the sometimes odd and quirky things he thought of interesting. An example of this is when Craig describes his relationship with food being an important one, one that's even more important that his relationship with his parents, which shows Craig's tendency to ramble and be literal. 

Craig, being a 15-year-old in our modern society, tends to use a lot of slang words as does his friends. The themes of this book also center around how teenagers deal with things such as sex, relationships, drugs, and fitting in. In the beginning of the book these themes are evident, but come up less later one, namely when Craig gets admitted into the hospital and is isolated from his friends. I found this to be enjoyable since a lot of the things that's discussed in the book is something I could relate to, but if it's not your cup of tea then don't fret, these themes become trivial on the later half of the book. 

Just in case it wasn't already obvious, this book deals with depression, a topic which is not really something that's funny. The story, in some moments, is just that, hence the title "It's Kind of a Funny Story." The funny aspects of the book only exist because of Craig. His sometimes humorous outlook on his life makes this book not depressing at all, in fact, I would consider this story light-hearted since Vizzini makes you see the funny things in Craig's sad life. 

Overall, I liked the way that the story was narrated, it was mostly insightful, funny, and something I could relate to. I also liked how Craig tended to ramble on about trivial things that popped into his mind simply because I found them interesting. 

Effectiveness (is the book engaging?)

For someone like me who can relate to most of the themes that are discussed in the story, such as depression, psychology, finding meaning in life, I found the book to be engaging. I also found the beginning of the book to be something I could read since the themes were something that I could relate to, typical teenage things (I don't do drugs, nor am I sexually active, but knowledge about them is enough). 

As someone who has never suffered from clinical depression, or known someone who has, I can't really determine whether the book is believable or not. I looked online for different perspectives and I found that most would say that the book is not very believable. SPOILER: In the story, Craig finds a girlfriend in the hospital, and beats his battle with depression, all in under a week. Most people would agree that finding and developing a relationship with a person your age in a psychiatric hospital is VERY unlikely, also according to people who have beaten depression, it's a battle won after months, or even years. Despite the unlikelihood of Craig finding a girlfriend in the hospital, I enjoyed the story (in fact, it's what reeled me into the book, the notion of romance in the story).

Craig and Noelle (Portrayed by Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts, respectively)

Personal Biases

This book deals a lot regarding depression, and as student studying Psychology, it's something that I found to be interesting. Something that stuck to me when reading this story was the fact that Craig saw suicide as a reason to keep on living. Whenever he got stressed out and felt that he wasn't in control of his life, he found refuge in the thought that suicide was something that he could do, something which he had control over, which is makes for some interesting irony. 

As I've stated before, I like romantic stories, which is why I picked this book up in the first place. Going into the book, I didn't really expect much besides the part of the book where Craig meets Noelle and have an unconventional relationship. But in the end I ended up finding Craig's struggle with depression and his interactions with the other residents more engaging than the romance aspect of the story. To be honest, I feel that the romance between Craig and Noelle was a little contrived given its unlikeliness, and found that it was a little cliche. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it just felt a little bit, for a lack of a better word, 'meh.' I, nonetheless, enjoyed it a little. 

Ned Vizzini's Influences

During his early 20's, Vizzini had been admitted in Brooklyn's Methodist Hospital psychiatric ward due to his battle with depression. This is what gave him inspiration for writing this book. Vizzini had written other books as well, and they share similar themes such as depression, and adolescence. His first book Teen Angst? Naaah. was a memoir about his teenage years, which then led him to publish his first novel Be More Chill, which is another story centered around a teenager. He published It's Kind of a Funny Story in 2006, which was his second novel. It's evident that Vizzini likes to write about adolescence and depression and anxiety, which are things he experienced first hand. As it turns out, Vizzini had been battling depression for a while, and unfortunately lost. He was reported dead on December 19, 2013 after committing suicide. 

Real World Connections

In a way, this book exhibits Vizzini's personal experience with depression and it raises the issue of the stigma behind clinical depression, and other mental disorders. When Craig is admitted into the psychiatric ward, he objects to the idea feeling that he shouldn't stay for any longer than a day, and that his friends should not know about it since he's embarrassed or having to say that he ended up mental hospital, something which, to him, has certain implications. In the end the issue is addressed and resolved in that Craig finds that the implications of his shrink, medication, and admission into the psychiatric ward doesn't really matter to him. In the end, how can he care about what other people think if they don't know what it's like?

Rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed this book. It had been about 2-3 years since I first read this, and I still love it, in fact re-reading it has instilled a deeper appreciation for the story in me. I have found things that I didn't fully understand before and thought of how I had missed them. At first I really enjoyed the romance aspect of the book, mostly because I hadn't questioned it at the time. This time around, I've come to appreciation the depression aspect of it, which is partly due to my desire to learn about psychology and the human mind. In the end, this is merely my opinion, others may find this book to be completely unbelievable much to the detriment of the story, but if you'd like to read a fiction in the perspective of an adolescent suffering clinical depression, then this one is for you.