Darkness Visible

Styron (1925-1906) was an American writer whose most famous novels include Lie Down in Darkness (1951); The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), which won a Pulitzer Prize; and Sophie’s Choice (1979). Darkness Visible (1990), his first-person narrative about his descent into severe suicidal depression and subsequent treatment, became his most famous work at the end of his career. Styron’s reflections about mental illness and suicide seem like common sense in the present day, but in 1990, they were innovative and groundbreaking. Although Styron repeatedly insists that the feeling of depression defies description, his firsthand experience of the illness, coupled with his skill as a storyteller, makes him uniquely qualified to try.

Although Styron refers to other people and figures, they are rarely present in the memoir. Darkness Visible focuses entirely on Styron’s inner life during one severe depressive episode, and other people only appear through the lens of his mental illness. Styron’s journey through depression and recovery is deeply personal and subjective, attempting to show the destructive silence of depression and the way stigma about mental health and suicide can be harmful. Styron, whose depression began to spiral on the day that he received a prestigious award, shows how mental illness doesn’t discriminate, and how it erodes success and a sense of accomplishment, distorting one’s perception of the world.