It's Kind of a Funny Story

It's Kind of a Funny Story

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It's Kind of a Funny Story is a teen novel by American author Ned Vizzini. This, Vizzini's second novel, follows a depressed young man who becomes suicidal and checks himself into a mental hospital. The book was inspired by Vizzini's own brief hospitalization for depression in November 2004 (as described at the footnotes at the end of the novel).

Plot

Craig Gilner lives in Brooklyn with his parents and his nine- year old sister, Sarah. The story begins in medias res, after which Craig takes the reader back into his past to explain how his depression started. Craig's depression begins after he studies for a whole year for a chance to get into Executive Pre- Professional High School. When he begins at the new school, however, Craig experiences extreme stress; he can't keep up with the rest of his classmates, only scoring an overall 93 average on his report card.

While eating out with his parents one day, he becomes so stressed that he vomits in the bathroom. Realizing then that he is mentally ill, he seeks help and is put on Zoloft, an anti-depressant. At first his medication works, but this causes him to become so confident in his mental health that he stops taking the Zoloft.

Craig's mental health quickly deteriorates. Finally, one night he asks his mother if he can sleep in her bed, which he often does when feeling particularly depressed, secretly planning to sneak out and commit suicide in the middle of the night. Wanting to use his body in his remaining time alive, he does a few push ups after his mother falls asleep, and, feeling his heart beat, realizes he doesn't completely want to die.

Leaving the bedroom he spots a book of his mother's on the living room bookshelf, and flips to the back, where the number of a suicide hotline is listed. He is directed to the emergency room of the local hospital, where he checks himself into the Adult Psychiatric section.

Once settled in the psych ward, he adjusts to the radically different lifestyle and begins to meet new people.Among his new friends are a man nicknamed 'Humble', who is anything but humble, a transvestite named Jennifer/ Charles (abbreviated as 'J/C'), the self- elected President Armelio who plays cards for a living, Noelle, a girl who scarred her own face with scissors, and Muqtada, Craig's willfully bed ridden Egyptian roommate. He bonds with these dysfunctional people, and learns how the people around him can be anchors in his life.

Feeling ready to contact the outside world, Craig calls his friend Nia and she confides to him that she takes Prozac, to deal with her manic depression. A day later Nia's boyfriend and Craig's best friend, Aaron, calls Craig, and during their conversation refers to the psych ward as the 'loony bin'. Craig confronts him about his insensitivity, telling Aaron about Nia's medication.

Aaron visits Craig the next day, apologizing for his behavior, admitting that he thinks that he too is depressed. Meanwhile, a romance has developed between Noelle, one of the other patients, and Craig. The next day Nia visits Craig, explaining that she and Aaron have broken up for good. Craig and Nia make out in his room, only to get caught by Muqtada. Nia, angered, leaves the hospital. Noelle is hurt, since she thought that Craig had feelings for her. This is the final shifting point of Craig's loyalty from his former friends to his new ones.

On the fourth day that Craigs spends at the hospital, his father and family bring him Blade II to watch with the other patients. At the same time, Craig is able to get his bed-ridden roommate, Muqtada, to leave his bed. This is part of Craig's plan to allow him and Noelle privacy to make out in his room. On the next (and last) day of his stay in the psych ward, he gives Noelle his phone number and leaves with his parents. He asks his parents if he can walk home by himself, to think things over. He finally experiences the moment he has been waiting for; he regains his joie-de-vivre.

Appropriately, the last word of the novel is 'Live'.

Movie release

An official movie has been slated for release sometime in 2008. Its movie rights have been sold to Paramount.

Trivia

• The front cover of the book is a reference to Craig's hobby of drawing maps. When he was four years old, he tried to trace Manhattan but failed. From then on, drawing maps became a hobby for him, and while at the psych ward he discovered how he could incorporate these maps into human forms. The book cover is a portrait of Craig himself.

External links

• Ned Vizzini's Official Web Site