Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is narrated by Helen, a 32-year old woman living in New York. She lives in a tiny shared apartment and works as a guardian for troubled young people. A small monthly allowance from an inheritance from a grandparent helps finance her life.
Work
Helen works with troubled young people. We discover that she gets marijuana for the other employees and also shares them with the youth to help them relax and calm down. She is under investigation at the beginning of the book. She finds out the result of the investigation on the day of the funeral.
Friends
Helen doesn’t have any friends but she establishes some bonds with the youth than she serves. She does activities with them outside of work and gives them her phone number so that they can call at any time. She is rather committed to them and they call her Sister Reliability.
Family
In the beginning of the story, just as Helen finishes accepting delivery for a couch from Ikea, an uncle calls her to tell her that her adopted brother has died from suicide. She flies from New York, to her childhood home in Milwaukee, where she intends to find out why her brother committed suicide.
The story takes us through the estranged relationship that Helen has with her adopted parents, who are surprised or disappointed when she shows up on their doorstep.
Helen
We learn about the adoptive brother through Helen’s memories, her encounter with friends and families, and through a journal which he left on his computer.
Helen isn’t close to any family members. She wonders if she should have known that her brother was going to commit suicide. She embarks on an investigation to find out why her brother committed suicide. A web search yield 6 reasons and she wants to know which applies to his case. She comes to the realization that he came up with a solution to a life-long problem.
Helen also takes shape as a troubled person who is oblivious to the havoc she wrecks around her. For example, she tries to keep the funeral flowers fresh by putting them into a bucket of water, not realising that the bucket also had bleach. She tries to find out what a friend of her brother knows about him and ends up chasing him into the path of a bus. She tells everyone around her about what’s she’s learned about the causes of suicide, oblivious to the effect if has on them. It is no wonder that everyone who knows Helen is shocked that she is involved in taking care of people.
Although we never find out what the issue is with Helen, we find out in his journal that her brother thought she was bipolar or schizophrenic. Helen discusses at one point that her adopted father’s family has people who suffer from mental illness. It’s almost as if she inherited this from him even though they have no biological relationship.
Themes
Is this story a look into what it’s like living as someone with a mental illness? Perhaps. I kept reading it only for that reason. Helen’s life is difficult but she has developed coping strategies and a resilience that is as unconventional as she is.
I thought about giving up on this book a few times. I found it very sad and disturbing. There is so much alienation and sadness with the pages. Yet, it is an interesting book. The book explores adoption, family relationships, suicide and mental health and weaves a story that unsettles the reader.
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