Ffirst-time novelist Judith Guest made a stellar debut in 1976 with the publication of Ordinary People. Guest was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1936, and raised there as well. She would later reside in Minnesota with a family of her own. Having lived all of her life in the Midwest, Guest was able to lucidly depict the type of upper-middle-class suburban community in which Ordinary People is set. Being the mother of three boys as well as an elementary school teacher further aided Guest in creating her fictional portrait of a troubled adolescent boy. The novel focuses on the boy's battle with severe mental distress and his experience in psychotherapy as he comes to terms with his suppressed feelings of guilt over the accidental death of his brother.
Teen suicide and depression. According to studies, the rate of suicide among teenagers in the United States increased dramatically among the later baby boom generation. Additionally, the rate of attempted suicide increased from 1,300 a year in 1960 to over 5,000 a year in 1980. Statistics also show that white teenage males kill themselves far more than any other groups of teenagers, accounting for more than 70 percent of all teen suicides.
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