any good fiction books on mental health

"Girl interrupted" was good.

Oh yes, and i forgot "girl interrupted" i don't know how becuase it was brilliant and i read it in one sitting - partly because my hours commute turned into a four hour slog due to some idiot putting a shopping trolley on the tracks :) I got to finnish my book - result :)

Not fiction but this was v interesting.

Marking place - some interesting ones on here

Sebastian Faulks wrote a brilliant story about schizophrenia - Human TRaces.

Have just finished "the psychopath test" can't remember who it was by but i'll leave you to decide if its about mental "illness" it was an eye opener!

Cotedazuer I have downloaded Umbrella, i forgot i had it on there, i gave up in the first chapter, its a bit of a stream of conciousness thing and i struggled with it. I did like "My Idea of Fun" by will self though - disturbing!

Definately some interesting reads on here - I am interested as i suffer from anxiety/depression but i also find the mind an interesting place to explore.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - one of the characters is a manic depressive.

Also The Heart Shaped Bullet by Kathryn Flett - not fiction, but an account of the breakdown of her marriage (which includes a mental breakdown) which I found fascinating.

Wally Lamb is quite good as I recall.

I know This Much Is True deals with severe schizophrenia and the impact on the patient's family including on their mental health.

She's Come Undone deals with eating disorders and depressive disorders.

Both very compassionate towards everyone involved

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Hannah Green is on my bookshelf waiting to be read. I believe it is about a girl with schizophrenia and the delusions she has.

Scarred by Sophie Andrews (the head of the Samaritans) is one if the most harrowing reads I have ever struggled through. That said I couldn't put it down and will never forget it.

There is a website... Madnessandliterature.org (I think, may have to google it but it is very similar to that!). I met someone who ran it as part of a research project at a conference and think it's quite good. It gives a whole list of mental health fiction books, but what is useful is it has extracts and reviews so helpful before you buy. They are often looking for new reviewers to volunteer.

The Yellow Wallpaper is superb.

I'd second The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Not fiction, but 'Girl, Interrupted' is well worth reading.

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood is very good - talking about the mother's mental health from the perspective of her daughter.

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

Ooh and I've just remembered The Yellow Wallpaper, which is a fantastic story/novella. Charlotte something something - I forget.

Prozac Nation, which is a memoir rather than fiction I think, but I enjoyed it.

Agree with the Bell Jar, and what about some Virginia Woolf?

I wouldn't count Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time under mental health, since that boy is not mentally ill.

I thought Interpretation Of Murder was quite weak. Did you know that it's author is married to "Tiger mum" Amy Chua?

For a meatier, more challenging look into the mind of mentally disturbed, try:

Umbrella - Will Self (very difficult but intellectually satisfying)
The Atrocity Exhibition - J G Ballard (disturbing and brilliant, best I have read on mental health)

Ruby Wax's new book is meant to be very good.

Rebecca definitely counts imo and the Bell Jar is amazing.

Oh, yes! I'd forgotten about the whole series of Janet Frame autobiographical novels. I absolutely hated her by the time I read them all, but I can't quite remember why now. Was it because she kind of identified her mental illness with her creativity in a way that seemed rather self-aggrandising, and almost like she had created a version of herself as mentally ill in order to satisfy a certain image of what it was to be creative/poetic. Did she do that? It was a long time ago that I read them.

I've just read 'Talking to the Dead'.

The protagonist has a rare condition which I can't explain without a 'spoiler'.

This is a fictional crime novel and should be read as such but it did make for a very interesting lead character.

Human Traces goes on for ever and ever and ever and ever though. It should have been something I'd love - but it wasn't. :(

Oh, and An Angel at my Table by Janet Frame is also very good.

Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks - one of his less well-known books - is interesting re the early treatment of psychiatric illness. Only a small part of the book, but the moving depiction of someone realising they are in the early stages of dementia really sticks in my mind.

Girl, Interrupted is a book as well as a film

quite a good list here
Was going to suggest The Curious Incident of The dog in the nighttime
By Mark Haddon

The Butcher Boy, by Patrick McCabe

Tender is the Night, FS Fitzgerald

yy to The Bell Jar, with the warning that it is such a raw depiction of mental ill-health that it is as disturbing and unredeeming as watching someone self-harm.

Crime and Punishment