A WRITER'S YELLOW BRICK ROAD to DEPRESSION

Recently, I came across this article featuring Jhumpa Lahiri, best known for her novel, the Namesake. 

WHY PULITZER-PRIZE WINNER JHUMPA LAHIRI QUIT THE US FOR ITALY.

Expecting some great life-affirming truths the author wished to impart on the world (which in a way, she did), I was shocked by what the article did clarify for me. Truth: I am not a fan of Lahiri's work. I think she's a brilliant writer, and has written brilliant books. But, I am a happy-ending kind of reader and I find her stories a bit too melancholy...actually I find them depressing.

Even before I started writing, when I looked at novels purely from a reader's perspective, I found something missing in her stories. I've read only two: the Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth. What I found missing was sunshine. Happiness. A meaning to the sadness within her characters and stories. For me, there has to be one. It's fine to write about the sadder truths of life, but there must be a reason for it. In fiction especially, I want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I want to be left with that glimmer of a rainbow. And I don't get that from Lahiri's works. I understand that others might. But I don't, at all.

So, the article about her move to Italy and back validated some things I'd always thought about her. That she's uncomfortable with her lot in life. She feels misplaced in most surroundings. Mainly, she's a depressive personality. And maybe the reason why her work reflects that. She could've chosen to paint the article in a positive light about experiencing a new culture or broadening the horizons of her family, but she chose to focus on her inner displacement and non-fulfillment issues.

What I don't understand is if she doesn't feel like an "expert" then why teach Creative Writing at Princeton? Those students enrolled in that class expect an expert teacher. If being a writer feels "fraudulent" in some way then find another way to fulfill your creative side. The world has many, many options, you know. Find one that appeals to you, speaks to you. Don't beat the same door, if it doesn't make you happy. Some people don't have a choice and are stuck in professions that don't fulfill them. Lahiri does have a choice (after several bestsellers and a pulitzer, you bet she does) and yet is choosing to be stuck. Why?

Which brings me to this article: WHY WRITER'S ARE PRONE TO DEPRESSION The gist:

~ some writers feel the need to FEEL all what their characters feel. If the character is suffering or is miserable, well then, the writer is screwed. (Bloody hell, Hemingway!)

~ it's a solitary occupation. Writers tend not to interact much with the outside world, especially while writing. 

~ that leads to feelings of loneliness and of being misunderstood. 

~ sometimes writing leads to lack of exercise, lack of basking in the sunshine and/or people-bonding, which are recipes for depression.

The article gives some great advice on how to combat the Writer Syndrome...or at least try to voluntarily or by force. Get exercise. Go look at the sun, flowers, water or forest. Socialize. Get those endorphins chugging. 

The only point I sort of disagree with is about joining writer groups. While it may be a necessary beast to tackle, I think if you're not a group sort of person, then it's not for you. Though for a beginner writer writing groups can be the boost you need to push forward. 

So, long story short, this is what I picked up from the two articles: Every writer must follow his/her own Yellow Brick Road home. A writer's journey is individual and personal, there isn't a ONE SIZE FITS ALL Dorothy Shoe. I am a happy writer. :) 

A ROWLINGS-GALBRAITH Quill match.

I have a confession to make. I have NOT (never ever) read the HARRY POTTER series. Several factors contributed to that travesty:

1) It didn't even register on my TBR list until the first movie came out.

2) Children were too young when it started gaining popularity and no copies were found about the house.

3) Once I watched the movies, which I since watched countless times each, the books lost their appeal only because they'd lost the suspense.

And because I didn't read Harry Potter, I made it a point to read The Casual Vacancy when it came out. I liked it. A lot. I like Rowlings' writing style, like a slow chug up to the point of no return (the point where an avid reader, in all conscientiousness, cannot go back from or give up the climb) and then a steady race down to the finish. The Casual Vacancy is not fantastical, no swashbuckling Quidditch going on anywhere, no diabolic noseless robes or owls or magic wands swishing about...only Rowlings' magic quill calligraphing each page with care. It's a dark book about a small town reacting to the death of a popular citizen...a seemingly simple plot but by the end of the book, I didn't find my time wasted.

And that I think is the mark of a great writer.

Now, lets attend to the Cormoran Strike series. Written under the notorious pen name, Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm are detective/crime novels, simple and fantastic. I don't just like these books, I LOVE them. Again, both books are a slow build-up to a booming HE DID IT! The main characters are as likable and fleshed out as Potter and Hermoine and speak to me more as they are adults with plenty of muggle-world adult issues.

Which brings me to the Silkworm I recently read. This book not only takes you on a walk about London and its environs solving a crime, but into the bowels of the publishing world. My world, as it is. I love the concept of using a novel within a novel to unravel the plot...puts me in mind of An Imperial Affliction in the Fault In Our Stars.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days-as he has done before-and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives-meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced. 

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before... A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott.

In The Silkworm publishers, editors, agents, writers and their aunts...all are suspect. Again, my world, as it is. :)
Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:

“The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them.” 

“We don’t love each other; we love the idea we have of each other. Very few humans understand this or can bear to contemplate it. They have blind faith in their own powers of creation. All love, ultimately, is self-love.” 

“...writers are a savage breed, Mr. Strike. If you want life-long friendship and selfless camaraderie, join the army and learn to kill. If you want a lifetime of temporary alliances with peers who will glory in your every failure, write novels.” 

“Forever encased in the amber of a writer's prose.”

“Hard to remember these days that there was a time you had to wait for the ink and paper reviews to see your work excoriated. With the invention of the internet, any subliterate cretin can be Michiko Kakutani.” 

Last but not least,

“... cheer the fuck up and eat your burger.” ~ Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm.