FICTION

GOD HEAD by Scott Zwiren (Dalkey Archive Press: $10.95, 134 pp.). I used to have a job administering “quality of life” interviews to mentally ill adults. Although every interviewer was extremely sympathetic, we all lived in dread of a severely manic respondent, since they were more challenging than borderlines, depressives and even many schizophrenics. I remember one case in particular where the only way to conduct the interview was by jogging along beside the man, my papers flapping, for almost two hours as he sped through the grounds of a hospital. The man was unable to focus on any single question for more than a second.

In his highly autobiographical novel, “God Head,” Scott Zwiren has perfectly captured how it feels to be manic-depressive, to the point where it is almost uncomfortable to read. There is no trace of the romanticization that so often accompanies fictionalized depictions of mental illness. Instead, Zwiren writes from so deeply inside the point of view of his protagonist that we feel, along with him, the disorientation and sadness of someone with a terrible disease.

“God Head” even has humor: “I tell her right out that I think I’m Christ. She asks me how old I am. I say 26. She says not to worry, that I got seven good years left.” Although some sections are difficult to read, that is almost as it should be in this important and powerful novel.