I wish I didn’t have to tell you about my book

I wrote a book about trying to kill myself, about surviving after, about how long I searched for the words to tell the story. When I meet new people, when they discover I wrote a book, when they ask what it’s about, I don’t know how to tell them. I walk on tip toes. I tell them it’s heavy, I tell them it’s intense. I tell them it’s about a bad time in my life. I give them my standard line. “It’s a memoir,” I say. “About being depressed in Boston.”