brianrayfiction.com Blog

Keep thinking about something that happened in Greensboro the other week. I figure, why not make it a blog post? When I read at the B&N, I was sort of stunned when a health care professional shook my hand and thanked me for writing about mental illness. “It’s something my generation swept under the rug,” he said, adding that Southern culture in general has preferred not to talk about that sort of thing. A big taboo. I knew that. And I knew that’s what my book, in part, is about. But now I know it.

The story of Fred Frese helps illuminate this aspect of the story – the mom’s erratic behavior and mental illness. Frese, a doctor, managed to gain control of his mind after, of course, some wild incidents. While he was in the Marines, during his mid 20s, Frese began to develop acute symptoms of schizophrenia. He thought American leaders were being hypnotized in a conspiracy to control the U.S. atomic weapons supply. He also feared a Communist plot that involved the fluoridation of American drinking water and the destruction of our precious bodily fluids. (Wait, that’s a film.) Later, he suffered from hallucinations that he was shape-shifting from monkey to snake, to dog, to fish, and then finally turning into an atom that would bring about the destruction of Earth. But he got a grip, finally, stayed on his meds, and got a PhD in Psychology – eventually becoming the director of a health center.

Frese faced persecution. People didn’t trust him. When she discovered his dark past, his girlfriend (now wife) almost called their relationship quits. In fact, she sort of did. She went all the way cross-country. But, love stories are true. She realized what a big mistake she’d made and returned to him. Aww.

The mom’s fate in my book, essentially, is Frese’s story gone terribly awry. She’s a product of a culture that makes madness a taboo and makes things worse for people like her. Misinformation or lack of information, and the family’s failures to communicate, all contribute to the tragic – albeit macabre – undoing of a gifted artist. There’s still a great deal of mystery surrounding mental illness. A recent study implies that viral infections during pregnancy can contribute to the development of schizophrenia – as much or more than heredity. Bet that would make some of the characters in my book rest easier at night.

In the end, that’s what the novel’s about. Yeah, yeah, it’s also about a steel mill. But before that, even, the story is about the destruction of a family in a culture that fears the deep, dark recesses of the mind. Foucault would have a field day with this story.