About The Isolation Door by Anish Majumdar:
From an award-winning journalist comes a haunting debut novel examining the inner world of the mentally ill and those within their gravitational pull.
Neil Kapoor, 23, is desperate to create a life beyond the shadow of his mother’s schizophrenia. Years of successive relapses and rehabilitations have forced his father into the role of caretaker and Neil into that of silent witness. But there is no light within this joyless ritual, and any hope for the future rests on finding an exit.
Amidst her latest breakdown, Neil attends drama school in pursuit of a role that might better express the truth of who he is. What started as a desperate gambit becomes the fragile threads of a new life. A relationship blooms with Emily, and each finds strength – and demons – in the other. New friendships with Quincy and Tim grow close and complex. But the emotional remove needed to keep these two lives separate destabilizes the family. Neil’s father, the one constant in the chaos, buckles under the pressure. Enlisting the aid of an Aunt with means and questionable motives, Neil plies ever-greater deceptions to keep the darkness at bay. But this time there will be no going back. As his mother falls to terrifying depths a decision must be made: family or freedom?
In this powerful fiction debut, Anish Majumdar shines a much-needed light into the journey of those coping with serious mental disorders and the loved ones who walk alongside them. Incisive and filled with moments of strange beauty, it marks the arrival of a unique voice in American letters.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go towards supporting schizophrenia research and treatment.
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Author Bio:
As a child growing up in Montreal, Canada, Anish Majumdar’s first creative writing lessons came courtesy of his mother, a former English teacher. Witnessing her struggle with schizophrenia had a profound impact and inspired The Isolation Door, his first novel. His non-fiction work, appearing in many publications, has garnered Independent Press Association Awards for Feature Writing and Investigative Journalism. His short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife, son, and a growing menagerie of pets in Rochester, NY.
Connect with Anish on Twitter @dashamerican and visit his website at anishmajumdar.com
A Q&A with Anish Majumdar
Author of The Isolation Door
Q. Tell us about your book, The Isolation Door.
A: The Isolation Door tells the story of a 23-year-old named Neil Kapoor who is taking his first steps towards manhood in the shadow of a schizophrenic mother. When you grow up with that kind of insecurity–forced committals in mental hospitals and difficult periods of rehabilitation, witnessing paranoid behavior and changes in personality so severe that the person you love becomes all but unrecognizable–it fundamentally changes how you function in the world and your dreams of what the future might hold. Amidst his mother’s latest breakdown, Neil attends college, falls in love, and discovers the magic of true friendships. But it’s all clouded in secrecy. These people hold the promise of a new life, yet how can he tell them the truth about his mother and how it’s affected his family without marking himself as damaged in the process? How do you grasp happiness when isolation is the strongest feeling you’ve ever known? Finding an answer to this lies at the heart of this book, and it’s something millions of other family members across the United States affected by mental illness in a loved one are struggling to answer.
Q. What prompted you to write this novel?
A: Necessity. Up until age 25, secrecy was how I dealt with my mother’s continuing battle with schizophrenia and its effect on me. I was working as a professional film/TV actor in Montreal, trying on the mask of different personas at work and continuing to turn the trick in my personal life. I had serious relationships with two women who loved me, but the thought of telling them something other than a made-up version of my past was inconceivable. I had great friends in Montreal and Toronto, but the fear that one day this horrible skeleton in my closet would be revealed always caused me to burn bridges preemptively. The end result was living alone with no one but my cat for company, sinking into a bottomless well of depression, unable to find a way out. Out of desperation, I began writing some of my memories down on paper. As I spent more and more time facing these demons, a magical alchemy took place and a new world, filled with people I’d come to love like Neil Kapoor, began coming out of the woodwork. I discovered a talent for writing novels, but more importantly, I gained the perspective necessary to see that my past did not have to define my future. By sharing my experiences and allowing them free reign, I was able to leave my old life in Montreal behind and start anew in the U.S. By being honest about myself, I struck up a relationship with Erin, the woman who’d become my wife in 2009. Today we enjoy a happy life with a baby boy and way too many pets. It’s a million miles removed from the isolation that threatened to drown me just a few short years ago, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Q. What kind of research went into it?
A: I was 9 years old when the death of my grandfather triggered the onset of my mother’s schizophrenia. From the moment her personality began to slip away and the first of many dangerous obsessions emerged, I stopped being a child and started being a watchful guardian. My father, younger brother and I had to suddenly learn to function in a single-parent household throughout over a decade of forced committals at Douglas Hospital (a mental institution in Montreal), lengthy periods of recovery, and, inevitably, relapses. Family finances were drained to cover legal fees, hospitalization, and massive shopping binges on clothes, costume jewelry, shoes . . . anything she would develop a fixation on. Friends of my parents they’d known since immigrating to Canada in the ’70s severed ties because she was much too dangerous in the grips of her schizophrenia, leaving us marooned with a person who could transform at any moment. This continued until I was in college, when the doctors who were treating her finally found a combination of drugs that offered stability. I drew heavily on these experiences in writing the novel. I’ve also had a chance to compare notes with therapists and social workers who have dealt with schizophrenics in the past, and realized that many other families are coping with their version of what we went through. I also put a significant amount of research into the types of drugs being prescribed to schizophrenics as well as the continuing controversy which surrounds schizophrenia, which some in the medical community believe is actually a catch-all term for multiple mental disorders.
Q. Tell us how much of yourself you put into the character of Neil.
A: In many ways, Neil is a younger version of myself–less sure of himself, more haunted, driven by a furious desire to get out, that conflicts with the love for family at every turn. I worked hard to really communicate the internal thought processes he experiences throughout the course of the book to give readers a sense of just how messy things can get emotionally. Yes, you should love your parents. But when any sense of normality has been stripped away after years of serving as a caretaker, it’s normal to feel resentful, confused, even furiously angry. On the flip side, there is an incredible sense of gratitude when you strike up relationships with new people. Understanding the darkness in a way few others do, it is impossible not to be truly grateful for those moments in the light: holding a girl who loves you extra close, treasuring the company of true friends. Neil is a version of myself on the precipice between light and darkness. Like him, there was a very real chance that I’d never make it out. But during the course of writing this book I did, and ultimately this hope is present in the story.
Q. What do you hope readers will walk away with?
A: I hope readers gain an intimate sense of the burden carried by the family members of someone suffering from a mental illness, as well as the unique perspective it affords in how you see life. For every challenge faced in looking after someone with such a disease comes a greater amount of self-understanding and resiliency. It’s very easy to say you love someone–it’s in the doing, looking after them when they can’t look after themselves, taking on the sacrifice willingly because they are as much a part of you as an arm or a leg where love is truly tested. To this day, there is a special bond between my father, mother, younger brother and me because we were all tasked with the challenge of dealing with a monster called schizophrenia. The monster never goes away, but those who face it grow closer through facing it. I think this kind of courage is something that should be celebrated, and I hope that readers make the extra effort to reach out to others who are going through similar circumstances.
Q. Has your relationship with your mother changed since writing this book?
A: My mother and I communicate more clearly with each other these days, and with less emotional baggage. Writing the book and creating a new life in the U.S. with my wife has, in many ways, removed the bedrock fear that something was wrong with me too and the dysfunction we lived through growing up would sabotage my ability to create a happy family life of my own. The truth is, life in my parents’ home was, and will always be, centered around catering to the whims of a schizophrenic. But my priority these days is being a loving husband and attentive father to my newborn son–and when push comes to shove, this will always take precedence over the needs (or obsessions) of my mother. These days, when my mother comes to visit, I make sure to call out any disturbing behaviors she’s displaying immediately. If she starts mumbling to herself, I’ll let her know. If she starts hiding things or displays other paranoid traits, I will let her and my father know. Far from alienating her, this approach seems to be a huge help to both of us. A big part of schizophrenia is lacking an awareness of these types of things. For far too long, we believed that ignoring these early signs meant sparing her feelings. Unfortunately, it also meant that she would spiral out of control that much sooner. By taking this upfront approach, she understands how her actions affect the rest of the family, and I get to communicate how I’m feeling in a positive way. This has resulted in a healthier relationship for both of us.
Also, seeing how nurturing she is when around Mickey, my son, has been a truly wonderful experience. When he was born, I remember going to the waiting room and showing Mom some first pictures. Halfway through scrolling through them, she looked up, and, in a tone of total amazement, exclaimed, “My god, you’re a Dad!” That kind of lightness of spirit comes through when she holds and plays with him. Honestly, it’s not something I ever thought I’d see again.
Q. Can you share a bit more about the important family dynamics in this novel?
A: The Kapoor family has 3 members: Priya, the mother; Raja, the father; and Neil, the 23-year-old son. Priya and Raja, a professor, immigrated to the U.S. in the ’70s and for a time, served as social butterflies within the small college town The Isolation Door is set in. Priya was a doting and caring mother to Neil, and it’s clear that they had a special bond. But the onset of her schizophrenia has changed all of that. Priya’s self-absorption, charming in the old days, flies out of control and becomes a dangerous fuel for her obsessions. Raja, desperately trying to keep things from falling apart, pretends things are better than they are until they become unbearable–a caring man whose love for his wife turns him into an enabler. In the midst of all this is Neil, who is caught between serving as his mother’s caretaker and creating a life all his own. Throughout the course of the novel, as Neil moves progressively towards the latter, it destabilizes the precarious balance within the Kapoor household, forcing a kind of reckoning amongst all 3 of them as they try to figure out the new state of things.
Q. How did growing up in a Bengali/Indian community in Montreal influence your worldview?
A: My relationship with the Bengali community in Montreal has definitely changed over the years. As a kid, I loved hanging out with the sons and daughters of family friends, watching movies in the basement and playing video games while our parents passionately debated politics upstairs. The amount of love Bengalis have for their children cannot be denied. However, the perspective of a cultural group composed of immigrants is vastly different from the perspectives of their children. As I got older and developed an interest in the arts, I came up against huge amounts of blowback from my parents and those in the community who knew me well. They didn’t understand why I was opting to go down such a risky path. I couldn’t understand the point of bowing and scraping and spending your life as a cipher because “that’s just the way things are.” During the latter years of high school and well past college, my rebellious nature prevailed and contact with this community was extremely limited. However, despite whatever criticisms I may have faced, many of these families ended up being the biggest fans of my acting and writing. As I began to make headway in these fields, I grudgingly won the respect of many of them. As I grew more self-confident and unabashed about exactly the kind of person I am, those who had previously seen me as a child began to see me as an adult. Ultimately, the thing that will always bind us together is loyalty–these people, who have been there since I was born and have been there at every major milestone since, will always care for me. Nothing I do will ever really drive them away. And that’s a quality I respect and treasure.
Q. What advice can you offer kids and young adults who are dealing with schizophrenia in their families?
A: Your ultimate loyalty is to yourself. Love for your family can be a double-edged sword–if caring for someone sick means sacrificing your future or your happiness, then you seriously need to consider cutting ties. I know this sounds cold, but I’ve seen way too many friends who’ve come up in similar circumstances become enslaved by the illness of a family member and accept a life that is beneath their potential. The irony of this approach is that it rarely results in a happy outcome for anyone. How can you take care of a loved one if you aren’t taking care of yourself? How can you lift someone up when you can’t stand on your own two feet? Whatever the cost, take the steps necessary to go after your dreams. A family member who cares for your happiness will understand. If they can’t, then it’s the illness talking, and the illness should never have that kind of influence. Don’t allow yourself to become another casualty of schizophrenia.
Q. In an ideal world, how would we view mental illness? Do you think we’re moving toward eliminating the stigma?
A: The current situation with regards to mental illness and treatment in this country is what I’d call a “quiet crisis” and is worsening at an alarming rate. Decades of neglecting this population of patients and dismantling long-term care facilities have resulted in only about 30% of mentally ill people in the U.S. actually receiving the kind of care they need. The rest are funneled into the judicial/prison system or, if they don’t have family support, are tossed out into the streets to fend for themselves. In recent years, we’ve seen a rise in the number of incidents such as the Sandy Hook shooting, where a mentally ill person snapped and went off the rails. With the current infrastructure that’s in place when it comes to the mentally ill, which should be recognized for the national embarrassment it is, is it any surprise that we’re seeing such horrific outcomes? One in four Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetimes. What kind of a message are we sending by telling 25% of our fellow citizens that they don’t deserve the same level of care, support, and treatment as everyone else? Unless we, as a society, have the courage to look mental illness in the eye and embrace those affected as brothers and sisters, we will all fall together.
Q. Tell us more about how you started writing. Any advice for aspiring writers?
A: The best writing comes out of a deep-seated need to express yourself. My mother, a former English teacher, used to give me nightly writing assignments as a child. She never cared about my literary voice, or my process, or what writers I admired . . . all that mattered was the honesty on the page. I never forgot that lesson. Writing a book starts out as fun and gets progressively more difficult. You’ll never make it to the end unless it’s something you have to do (as opposed to want to do). Will and clarity of purpose cannot be learned–everything else can.
One other thing: read the books you want to read, not the ones you feel you should. A good writer is a stubborn person–learn to develop the capacity to do and read and be exactly the way you want to be. Listen to yourself beyond everyone else–it’s your job to lead, not follow.
Q. Where can we find out more about your work?
A: I share personal stories on my blog, www.dashamerican.com. I also keep fans updated on articles and other pieces that are coming out through Twitter: @dashamerican. Finally, I love speaking at high schools, colleges, and organizations about my experiences and the importance of breaking the wall of silence that surrounds mental illness–interested parties can contact me directly at anish@dashamerican.com.
The Isolation Door by Anish Majumdar is a post from Awesome Gang