NEW YORK: “Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See” is a work of fiction, but author Juliann Garey said the protagonist’s struggles with bipolar disorder are based on her own reality.
The debut novel from journalist and screenwriter Garey, which was published this week, centers on Hollywood executive Greyson Todd’s struggle to navigate life with bipolar disorder.
The story is told as a collection of memories that include Greyson’s childhood with his mentally ill father, the discord that his symptoms cause in his marriage and professional life, and his travels around the world that precede his stay in a New York psychiatric hospital.
Garey herself is bipolar and the illness runs in her family. “There are components that are conceived from my life, but it’s certainly not autobiographical,” she said in an interview. “It’s definitely fiction in terms of the plot. In terms of the psychic rollercoaster that he (Greyson) goes through in the book, that is actually very much from my own life.”
Garey said the steep crests and drops of Greyson’s moods closely paralleled her own. Beginning at age 39, she experienced a seven-year, treatment-resistant bipolar episode during which she wrote the book.
“When Greyson was having a manic episode, it was because I was having a manic episode and I wrote it during that period,” she said.
Garey’s book coincides with the recent release of a critically acclaimed film, “Silver Linings Playbook,” which centres on a character who is bipolar. Though Garey said there is still a “huge stigma” attached to mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, she considers open discussion a step in the right direction.
“There are 11 million Americans with a serious mental illness who were voting in that election, and mental illness never came up once during the campaign,” she said of the 2012 presidential election. “We have a long way to go.” Reuters
