Romantic Comedy Explores the Nature of Delusions

Lisa VanZandt, author of “The Subway Is for Unicorns,” a romantic comedy, spent most of 2010 institutionalized for schizoaffective disorder. She used her delusions as the inspiration for her romantic comedy which will be available as a free kindle download from Saturday, June 2, 2018 through Wednesday, June 6, 2018.

“The Subway Is for Unicorns: A Postmodern, Magical Realist, Sacrilegious Comedy, Adventure, and Romance” in some ways mimics the experience of having delusions. Lisa claims her relationship with Fred the unicorn is real, then it’s not, then it is again. Realities shift throughout the first half of the book until Lisa and her lover Jesus attempt to rescue the souls in hell and to stop Satan aka Santa from gaining dominion over the world.

The book also includes elements from Lisa VanZandt’s biographical story.

While suffering from psychosis, Lisa VanZandt ran away from her home in Michigan and drove until she ran out of gas on Long Island. She walked away from her car, spent a couple nights sleeping outside, and kept walking until the police picked her up and brought her to a nearby hospital. She believed she was travelling through heaven and hell and that her ex-boyfriend was Satan and his friend, a professional clown, was Jesus.

“I used the delusions I found funny as the basis of the book,” Lisa VanZandt said. “Some people will find the sacrilegious and sexual nature of the book offensive, but that was not my intent. I was just trying to cope with my delusions by making fun of them.”

Lisa VanZandt has struggled with mental illness since high school, but this is the first time she has explored her illness in her fiction. Her hope, she says, is that by making fun of her delusions in “The Subway Is for Unicorns” she will help others see the positive side of mental illness. She also says she considers her escape to Long Island and the journey her delusions took her on to be the greatest adventure of her life. Read more at www.lisavanzandt.com.
 

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