| Code White begins as many thrillers do – a young woman wakes up on a cold gurney in a psych ward, caked with mud, unconscious to the events that led her there.
After that, the similarities end. Instead, author Debra Anderson has crafted the journal of Alex, a gay woman whose mental illness leads her through the inner workings of a psych ward, with its injections, cigarette breaks and weariness that anyone in such an alien situation would experience. "I wanted the story of Alex, who has her first bipolar episode, to mirror something in readers’ own lives, even if they might not possess anything in common with her," says Anderson.
The attention to detail belies what Anderson saw as a chance to express the realities of living with a mental illness. "I felt inspired to tell a story that hasn’t been told very often, even though it occurs to many people," she says. "Through her illness and her forced stay on the ward, Alex loses her voice and is stigmatized, as ill people often are."
Because of its intimate look into the daily machinations of a psych ward, it’s difficult to imagine how one would approach writing about what is generally conjured from stereotypes. "In the absence of a clear picture or their own experiences to guide them, people do often rely on whatever stereotypes are available to fill in those gaps," says Anderson. "I understand that for many readers, the world of mental health issues, a psych ward, or even queerness can be unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory. People react differently if you disclose that you have diabetes than if you say you’re manic-depressive or schizophrenic."
Both Alex and the reader follow their own first impressions of life on the ward, including sexuality. "People are pleasantly surprised that a character going through mental illness still has an active and enjoyable sex life," says Anderson. "I didn’t want to put Alex into a ‘sick’ box and take away even more of her agency by neglecting that aspect of her. It wasn’t true to life, and it wasn’t fair either. You don’t stop being a person when you get sick."
Anderson also infuses Alex’s journey with a biting humour, which she uses, as many do, as a coping mechanism – a part of her, like her sexuality, that doesn’t disappear once she’s in the hospital. "She’s tender-hearted and sweet, but fierce and independent, too," she says. "Naturally, she wants to continue making the same kinds of simple choices for herself that you or I have the freedom to do every day – which clothes to wear, when and where to eat. The struggle to maintain independence in a place with such regimented rules and routine provides much of the tension in the novel. Who gets to label someone else crazy, or less than? Who gets to pathologize whom?"
It’s that connection that Anderson wants readers to take away from Code White. "There’s a commonality between people that is sometimes hard to see from the surface, particularly where we have no real experience in certain realms, and find those experiences unimaginable," she says. "Often, outcasts actually have the best critical vantage point of humanity, able to see what’s occurring in society in a way most of us don’t have access to.
"By living outside the space the rest of us share, they can bring a fresh perspective towards the mundane things we often take for granted."
Debra Anderson will be reading at Pages on Kensington with Ali Riley on Tuesday, March 21. |
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