What’s different is someone actually turned this into a novel. In Dec 2000, Carrie Fisher - daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, the actress best known as Princess Leia in "Star Wars," cable talk show host, script writer, and author of "Post Cards from the Edge," - revealed on 20/20 that she had bipolar disorder. "I own it," she told Diane Sawyer, "I am mentally ill." Prior to accepting her illness, following years of denial, she believed she was simply a drug addict. At one point she was taking 30 Percodan a day to mellow out her mania. "The Best Awful" (Simon & Schuster), her latest novel, could well be titled, "Carrie Fisher Goes Off Her Meds." Ironically, her character Suzanne observes: "What an ingenious party trick, don’t take drugs and get high."

Suzanne, a divorced mother, is finding life nowhere near the fun it used to be. As she describes it, "the traits the doctors diagnosed and sought to medicate were some of her favorite aspects of herself ... This heady stuff was what made her so special and set her apart from the rest. An assurance of finer times, romantic interludes, lickety-split wit and out-of-this-world-class adventures."

She decides to remedy matters by unleashing "Lucrezia," her uninhibited alter-ego, which is simply a matter of "forgetting" to take some of her meds. Lucrezia is intended for emergency use only, but once Suzanne lands herself a boytoy and finds herself the life of the party, it becomes an addiction. The meds are forgotten and all hell breaks loose. Soon she is walking on the wild side, with a new tattoo and freaky hair-do, headed south of the border on an OxyContin high with her tattoo artist companion. But the good times come crashing down when she finds herself alone and disoriented in Tijuana, in need of rescue by a friend.

Her psychiatrist puts her on new meds just before he goes on vacation, without leaving a contact number or providing a backup doctor. An antidepressant-induced psychotic break lands her in a mental hospital (Shady Acres to the staff, Shaky Brains to the residents), where her so-called treatment includes endless meetings and making bad collages and her main amusement is watching the people with bulimia and anorexia eat. When her privacy is violated by a resident tipping off a supermarket scandal sheet, the hospital sends her packing. Now, on new meds and back home, thankfully to a forgiving family, the mending can begin:

"Suzanne found that once your mind goes to a place as far as hers had gone to, it tends to take a while for it to come back. And if by some miracle it did come back, it wouldn’t be, could never be, the same brain. But who would want the same one anyway, now that it had turned on you and in you so completely? Sure. Who are we kidding?"

It’s a story that makes you laugh, but not cry, which is its major weakness. Carrie Fisher’s star power ensures that a whole new public will read for the first time what it’s like to have this dreadful illness, but they are likely to be merely amused and entertained rather than moved and challenged. Nevertheless, if we want to get our illness on the map, we definitely need to go through Hollywood. Patty Duke and "A Brilliant Madness" was a good place to start. Carrie Fisher and "The Best Awful" may take us the next step or two of the way.

Excerpt

"Soon Suzanne’s hair lay in strips all over the floor around her.

"As with Tony and the tattoo, she no longer watched what he was doing or how she was being altered; instead she listened to Reuben speak intently of his faith:

"‘I could not live in Los Angeles without being Orthodox." He was bent over, concentrating on cutting the hair over Suzanne’s ear evenly, as she listened spellbound, barely registering the metallic slashing of his scissors and the touch of his small, careful hands.

"‘I find that the teachings of the Torah and attending Temple, observing the Sabbath - all these things bring order and meaning to my life, and teach my children about their heritage, as well as giving them gratitude and respect they can carry with them throughout this frequently chaotic life.’

"Suzanne listened to him speechlessly. It was important she hear every word for the simple reason that she had been brought by God to Reuben in order to receive his divine message. No other explanation would serve. Surely God himself had insinuated this persistent grooming itch into her head - an itch that required immediate scratching. And that scratch had led to this spiritual lock-shearing. The key to living her hair-brained life the right way was the religion of her long-lost father! The message was so clear! It was then that she decided to convert to Judaism."

Purchase The Best Awful from Amazon.com.

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March 30, 2004

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