Semi-Autobiography; Family Drama; Coming-of-Age
Joanne Greenberg boarded the Reality Is King train long before it was fashionable.
The author has admitted publicly that the novel is totally based on her own life. She spent three years in a mental hospital in Maryland from 1948 to 1951. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia, like Deborah, although that diagnosis was given more freely to a broader range of symptoms back then. She even based Dr. Fried on her own psychotherapist, whom she credits for her recovery.
The novel is also a family drama: Deborah's illness doesn't just affect her, it also affects her parents, her sister, and her extended family. We see Suzy, Deborah's younger sister, sulking because Deborah sucks all the energy out of her parents. Jacob and Esther Blau, who already have problems communicating with people and each other, struggle to articulate their emotional distress at watching their daughter lose touch with reality. Illness of any kind doesn't just affect the victim.
Deborah is sixteen when the novel begins, but the story is replete with flashbacks that shed light on the long eleven-year development of her disease. Over the course of the novel, we get to see Deborah grow up and let go of Yr, the imaginary world she started building when she was five. Saying goodbye to all those imaginary friends is even more emotional than the scene in Inside Out where Bing Bong fades away. But grow up Deborah must if she wants finally to come of age.