![]() Vizzini said he’d been hospitalized after a near-suicide. Vizzini’s depression had been until he read an early manuscript of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.” When he asked about the origin of the idea, Mr. Vizzini’s, said he didn’t know how severe Mr. Nick Antosca, a novelist and TV writer who was a close friend and collaborator of Mr. He wrote the novel in a few feverish weeks, in what he described as a “mad monthlong dash to exorcise some demons.” It was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association and adapted into a 2010 movie starring Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts and Viola Davis. He spent five days there, and when he got out, he wrote “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” which centers on a teenager named Craig who feels crushed by the pressures of his prestigious high school and calls a suicide hotline after he contemplates jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. He called a suicide prevention hotline, which directed him to a nearby hospital. One night in late November, 2004, he felt so desperate that he thought about killing himself. While on the surface it reads like a raunchy teen comedy, the novel also raises prescient questions about the corrosive side effects of technology. The novel’s teenage protagonist, Jeremy, feels invisible and irrelevant, until he swallows the tiny device that teaches him how to be cool, coaches him on how to impress girls, drive a car and deflect bullies. When it came out in 2004, “Be More Chill” was celebrated as an innovative, genre-bending story that inverted classic coming-of-age and high school comedy tropes. He studied computer science at Hunter College, and published his first novel when he was in his early 20s. “He lived under unbelievable stress, but his truest self was really goofy, and saw the pure humor and the ludicrousness of it all,” said his sister, Nora Vizzini. He wrote for The New York Times Magazine, and published his first book, an essay anthology titled “Teen Angst? Naaah,” when he was 19. While he was still a student at Stuyvesant High School, he began writing for The New York Press. Vizzini was a creative, precocious boy who excelled in school and loved Dungeons & Dragons. Growing up in the 1980s and ’90s in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Mr. But it’s also a constant reminder of his absence. ![]() ![]() Vizzini’s work has been a source of consolation for his family and friends. Other artists are now adapting his stories into new forms - including, improbably, a raucous pop-rock, sci-fi musical comedy based on “Be More Chill.” The show - which had a sold-out Off Broadway run last year after a cast album went viral online, gathering more than 200 million streams - opened March 10 at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway, and has been optioned for a forthcoming feature film. His young adult novels, including “Be More Chill” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” which chronicles the five days he spent in a Brooklyn psychiatric ward, continue to sell tens of thousands of copies a year, and collectively have more than a million copies in print. Rather than fading, interest in his work has grown, as a new generation of young fans discovers his books.
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