Query: English-language biographical novels about diseases and disorders
Domain: books
Relevant documents:
John Barleycorn (novel)
Ham on Rye
Factotum (novel)
The Bell Jar
The Best Awful There Is
Under the Volcano
Evidence from documents: Ham on Rye: English-language biographical novels: a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski
about diseases and disorders: To make matters worse, Chinaski develops horrible acne so severe that he has to undergo painful, and mostly ineffective, treatments, essentially becoming a human guinea pig for various experiments thought up by his uninterested doctors. The reader eventually follows Chinaski to college and reads of Henry's attempt to find a worthwhile occupation.


Like his previous autobiographical novels, ''Ham on Rye'' centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. Throughout the course of the novel, Bukowski develops his misanthropic anti-hero character that is seen in his other works like ''Post Office'' and ''Hollywood''. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner.
Factotum (novel): English-language: a picaresque novel by American author Charles Bukowski.
biographical novels: Much of the novel is dedicated to describing various menial jobs that Chinaski temporarily holds during the USA’s WWII economic boom. Even though some of Chinaski's jobs and colleagues are described with great detail, they all eventually end with him either abruptly leaving or being fired.
about diseases and disorders: He is consistently rejected by the only publishing house he respects, but is driven to continue by the knowledge that he could do better than the authors they publish. Chinaski begins sleeping with fellow barfly Jan, a kindred spirit he meets while drowning his sorrows at a bar.
The Bell Jar: English-language biographical novels: the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed
about diseases and disorders: The book is often regarded as a ''roman à clef'' because the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar II disorder.
The Best Awful There Is: English-language: a 2004 novel by actress and author Carrie Fisher.
biographical novels about diseases and disorders: Like most of Fisher's books, this novel is semi-autobiographical and fictionalizes events from her real life.
diseases and disorders: Suzanne Vale, an actress with bipolar disorder, married Leland Franklin, a studio executive who helped her find her "far-flung best self." He then left her for a man, when their daughter, Honey, was three.


Three years later, Vale is a successful TV talk show host with a six-year-old daughter, a gay ex-husband, and an aging starlet mother. It is her love for Honey that keeps her going.


When Vale, a recovering drug addict, stops taking her medication, she is plunged into a manic episode. She goes on a search for OxyContin in Tijuana with a tattoo artist friend and a new house guest, a clinically depressed patient she met at her psycho-pharmacologist's office.
Under the Volcano: English-language: It was included in Modern Library's 100 Best English-Language Novels
about diseases and disorders: an alcoholic British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac,
English-language: It was included in Modern Library's 100 Best English-Language Novels
biographical novels about diseases and disorders: The novel tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac, on the Day of the Dead in November 1939.