Milwaukee Novelist Bill Zaferos Returns with a Satire on Mental Health and Social Shaming

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'Serenity Heights' by Bill Zaferos

Serenity Heights is filled with the comically bitter musings of a has been. The protagonist of Milwaukeean Bill Zaferos’ second novel, “Rockin’ Donnie” Derringer, was once a high-flying FM jock reduced to graveyard hours at KYJL in blink-it’s-gone Deerhead, MN. Adding injury to his damaged ego, Derringer is trapped in a “classic rock” time warp of ‘70s tunes broadcast over and over again. The wonder is that KYJL (pun, pun) doesn’t replace him with an automated format, but then, maybe he’s cheaper than a monthly service fee for streaming.

The portrait of a 60something who partied many times too many, Derringer is suddenly confronted by another has been, a slicker customer, the onetime gameshow host Jerry Most. Most hopes his new podcast-cable access show, “Losers on Parade,” will attract enough attention to refloat his sunken career. He wants Derringer to be a guest on “Loser,” glossing over the irony that he, too, is a loser in society’s eyes.

Zaferos describes Most as “a cynic, a jerk and a snob,” and most readers will sympathize with Derringer. Zaferos agrees. “I’m with Donnie,” he says. “While there may be moments when I feel like a misanthropic Jerry Most, generally, but unlike Jerry Most, I like to think of myself as a decent guy. Jerry is simply irredeemable, and redemption is always part of my novels for some reason.”

As the story progresses, Derringer ends up—after a drug and alcohol induced threat of suicide—at what passes for a mental health facility with balmy name of Serenity Heights.

“Donnie’s story is really one of lost love and the search for redemption,” Zaferos explains. “Donnie is self-destructive not only because he believes his antics will advance his career, but also because he's easily bored. He thinks some of his stunts are fun and funny. But while Donnie has a self-destructive nature because, like me, he’s bipolar. He’s often in pain.  Unlike me, he doesn't know he’s mentally ill. He just thinks he’s ‘Donnie being Donnie.’

“In the end all he really wants to do is regain a long-lost love and settle down with her because he believes that her return to him would fix him,” Zaferos continues. “While he’s always on the verge of losing a job because of his actions, Donnie staves off boredom and performs crazy stunts because he thinks the lost love—whom he had betrayed many years prior—will be impressed, take him back and ease the pain in his tormented soul.”

Derringer may be self-destructive, causing no harm beyond his immediate circle, but Most is socially destructive. “Shaming culture is embedded into popular culture. It’s our schadenfreude moment in history,” Zaferos says. “Jerry Most’s ‘Losers on Parade’ show is designed to pick on people so that members of the audience can be glad they’re not the person on stage. But shaming is a touchy issue. I saw that Lizzo removed the word ‘spaz’ from a song because it insulted people with degenerative muscle diseases. Really? Look, I’m bipolar. I’m chronically depressed. I suffer from anxiety. I guess that makes me a ‘nut job. A kook. a loony.’ Go ahead, say it! I’m not offended. I’m worried that we’re all taking the idea of shaming a bit too seriously, where everyone is looking for their chance to be offended.”

At heart, Zaferos is a satirist. “Both Poison Pen (his previous novel) and Serenity Heights offer a view of society from my fevered imagination,” he says. “I don't like popular culture, so it’s an easy target. Is it really out of the realm of possibility that ‘Losers on Parade’ would become a real-live TV show? I certainly think we're headed in that direction. People are going to have to be even more outrageous to get attention in a world where satire and fiction have become nearly one in the same.”

For a review of Zaferos’ previous novel, visit https://shepherdexpress.com/culture/books/milwaukee%E2%80%99s-poison-pen-novelist-at-the-marcus-center/