The Paper House is a stunning piece of literature. Early reviews have described it as “wild, brave and moving” and “Gorgeously written and genuinely assured. But it’s more than a good read.
Anna Spargo-Ryan’s book deals with some tough subject matter including pregnancy loss, grief and suicide. But the mental health themes that run through the story are particularly powerful.
The book is written from the perspective of the central character, Heather, as she grapples with her own mental health in the aftermath of pregnancy loss.
Spargo-Ryan says that telling the story from Heather’s perspective forces the reader to experience what she is going through.
“It was always going to be a visceral story and written in a way that was immersive. I wanted to take the reader into Heather’s world,” she explains.
Spargo-Ryan’s poetic prose is delightful to read, but it does more than paint a picture for the reader.
“I think it’s easier for people to relate to it if it’s written in poetic language,” she says.
“Being able to put language around [mental illness] is the first step in being able to understand the reality of it.”
In writing the Paper House Spargo-Ryan wanted to talk about mental illness in a way that was honest and unapologetic. She notes that fiction is a great way to explore topics that are too complex for traditional journalism.
“Fiction goes a long way to communicating these things in a way that is accessible to people,” she explains.
However, Spargo-Ryan also notes that mental illness is often portrayed in the media and entertainment as a caricature.
“Even in shows like Offspring or Girls, where the caricatures are positive, and they have a ‘nice mentally ill person’, I haven’t found them to be overly truthful. And the representation is nice, but not always very helpful,” she says.
“I wanted to write a story that would say true things about mental illness.”
In capturing the reality of life with mental illness Spargo-Ryan hopes to give people living with mental illness a way to articulate their experience.
“The most important thing about mental illness, in terms of reducing the stigma, is that it’s very hard to describe in a way that people will understand the legitimacy of it.
“I get a lot of emails from people who say things like ‘you’ve described my experience and I’ve never been able to’. It helps them to understand their own experience, but also to explain it to their friends and family,” she says.
Spargo-Ryan says that being able to articulate the experience of mental illness can help to reduce the isolation people feel when they can’t explain what they are going through in a way that makes sense to other people.
Of course, Spargo-Ryan is no stranger to mental illness and has written about her personal experience extensively on her blog and for publications such as the Guardian and Daily Life.
So what is it like for someone with a mental illness write such a raw book about the subject?
“There is definitely a lot of me in there. There are parts that were very emotional to write,” she confesses.
“But being so close to the subject matter helped me make better sense of what I was going through outside of the story. So it was a kind of catharsis as well. It was healing.”
You can buy The Paper House here
