COLUMN: Author Nick Hornby tackles mental health

There aren’t many issues that are less funny than mental illness and suicide. Yet somehow, author Nick Hornby manages to take one of the most serious issues in contemporary society and make it laugh-out-loud hilarious, without dismissing its crippling reality.

I am a big Hornby fan, and About a Boy has long been one of my favorite books. That was part of the reason I decided to read his novel A Long Way Down this summer. The other part was because mental illness and psychology is something I have always found interesting and important to our culture. I was not disappointed. Hornby’s story is at the same time hilarious and tragic, heartwarming and heartwrenching. The plot follows four characters who could not seem more different from one another. Martin Sharp is a failed TV personality and talk show host whose career took a nosedive after sordid details of his private life were released to the public. Maureen is a single mother who lives alone with her severely mentally disabled son. Jess is a rambunctious, troubled teenager who is dealing with a bad breakup. JJ is an American musician whose band has just broken up. Only one thing ties these eclectic cast of characters together: on New Year’s Eve, they all decide to commit suicide. It so happens that all four characters chose to end their lives by jumping off the same rooftop. However, once they encounter each other, the moment becomes awkward. Slowly, they all start to talk and decide to postpone their suicides.

Part of what I love about Hornby’s humor is how dark and real it is. He isn’t going to tiptoe around the truth or make a joke that has already been told. Part of how he accomplishes this is by switching perspectives each chapter between the four protagonists. Each has his or her own comically unique voice and criticisms of the others. For example, JJ describes the rest of the group as “a middle-aged woman who looked like someone’s cleaning lady, a shrieking adolescent lunatic and a talk show host with an orange face … It didn’t add up. Suicide wasn’t invented for people like this. It was invented for people like Virginia Woolf and Nick Drake. And Me. Suicide was supposed to be cool.” His sarcastic quips and uncanny observations make for a gorgeously readable narrative.

Still, as with most comedy, underneath all the humor is something very real and important. Hornby doesn’t shy away from the issue at hand, and some of his observations about mental illness are not only deeply poignant, but also completely honest. He describes the inner conflict and incredible suffering that is experienced by those struggling with mental illness.

“A man who wants to die feels angry and full of life and desperate and bored and exhausted, all at the same time; he wants to fight everyone, and he wants to curl up in a ball and hide in a cupboard somewhere. He wants to say sorry to everyone, and he wants everyone to know just how badly they’ve all let him down.”

I think that what makes this book so profound and what makes me recommend it so ardently has a lot to do with its cultural relevance. In 2014, Newsweek reported that about 18.2 percent of the American population suffers from some form of mental illness, making it one of the most common illnesses and leading causes of death in the country. While A Long Way Down is set in Hornby’s home town of London, the statistics here are very similar, with one in four people experiencing a mental health problem in England every year, according to mind.org.

What is so admirable in this book is that Hornby recognizes that mental illness can affect anyone of any age or gender from any walk of life. The contrast between the arrogant, middle-class and middle-aged TV host, and the quiet, beaten-down single mother is staggering, and yet still they find each other in the same situation. A Long Way Down emphasizes that nobody is immune to mental anguish and everybody has his or her own crosses to bear.

Hornby isn’t vocally advocating for any type of mental health reform or taking a political stance. Instead, he is simply showing the reader how the world looks from people whose lives feel unlivable. They are far from perfect, but they are relatable and deeply human. With an issue like mental illness that is coming more and more into the public consciousness, it is easy to get lost in statistics and data and forget that there are people who suffer not just from mental illness, but from the stigma and prejudices that come along with it. Hornby goes some way toward dispelling these preconceptions. He shows the people behind the news headlines, and he tells their stories and does it all while making you laugh.