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On Writers






 The NYT has been publishing wonderful essays on nuttiness: Yiyun Li on suicide, a corporate lawyer on family dysfunction, a cartoonist on despair.


This last one--the cartoonist--has a great gift. She starts with a doozy: "I had just been released from a two-week hospitalization in a psych ward, after my diagnosis, at 36, of advanced ovarian cancer...."

What follows is triumphant: The tone avoids self-pity and glib humor. It's just honest and direct. The writer describes group therapy with "the tired and the wired," the CEO who "shakes too much to eat." The writer takes us to board-game sessions: "We needed to have fun. Also, we needed to stay active. In group, activeness was next to godliness...."

But you eventually have to leave a psych ward. You have to take care of yourself. It's this change that forces the crisis in the story--which is so surprising and odd (and relatable). There is understated panic all the way through the climax, which involves a sleepless night.

I'm not sure how long Alison Barnwell will be around--when do we ever know?--but I liked her story.

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