Furiously Happy (by Jenny Lawson)

(Amazon UK link)

I had never heard of Jenny Lawson, although I now realise she’s quite a well-known American blogger, who writes openly and honestly about her experience with mental illness. I doubt if I’d have come across her book, but it was allocated for this month’s local reading group. I was able to find it inexpensively on AwesomeBooks - unfortunately it turned out to be a hardback; I much prefer reading paperbacks. But it’s in excellent condition. 

The book starts with a series of prologues and disclaimers which left me shaking my head in puzzlement; perhaps I should have read them after finishing the rest of the book, as they made more sense then. They’re a mixture of weird and poignant - clearly the author’s self-disclosure and openness has led to a number of people worldwide realising they’re not alone; sometimes it’s given them the motivation to keep going. 

As such I have to applaud her honesty and willingness to admit to her anxieties and other issues. But there’s also quite a bit of shouting and bad language that I found quite disturbing. 

The main part of the book is divided into short sections, apparently randomly as they don’t seem to have any chronology or categorisation. Once I’d started thinking of them more like blog posts or even a collection of short essays (or talks) it was easier to make sense of the book.  

Some of the sections are serious, very well-written, and - I would think  - encouraging to anyone who has experienced any kind of childhood trauma or who suffers from mental illness, however mildly. It was interesting to see inside the author’s mind; to 'overhear' some of her conversations with a therapist, or doctor, or her husband. 

There are several short sections about her marriage, too, with a series of descriptions of arguments she had with her husband (Victor). He sounds like an excellent guy, a good foil for Jenny Lawson’s oddities; very supportive, yet also challenging her as a person, not treading on eggshells around her.  I found some of these sections amusing - I could see grains of truth in some of the arguments, the kind of thing that married couples argue about endlessly. Although, having said that, they bordered on the bizarre many times - or, indeed, dived right into bizarreness. 

There are a few places in the book where I chuckled inwardly; a couple where I even laughed aloud. But there are also quite a few places where I cringed, or even skipped a few paragraphs. The author’s father is a taxidermist so she grew up around animals skins - all from animals which died naturally, but even so I found those parts extremely distasteful. The image on the front of a crazy-looking stuffed raccoon would have put me off entirely if I’d seen it in a shop and her descriptions of placing dead animals on her cats nearly put me off the book entirely.  

Indeed, after the first fifty pages or so I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. In addition to the disturbing parts about dead animals, there’s so much bad language in some sections that it’s hard to know what the author is actually saying. I know some people use a lot of ‘strong’ words, and in context it can be understandable. But to use the same word half a dozen times in a couple of paragraphs seems to lack originality and creativity. If any other word was used so repetitively, a good editor would change or remove some of them. 

However, I kept going, and the book did grow on me. I figured out which bits to ignore, which to read, and which to pause and think about. I’m still not sure who the intended audience is; the style varies so much between different sections that I don’t suppose the whole book would appeal to many people, although, equally, probably everyone would find some section that they can relate to, or which they could find helpful. 

As a book to bring mental illness into the open, along with the author's blog (and other books, which I probably won't read) I think it’s probably succeeded. And I’m sure many people bought the book because they follow the author’s blog or web page. But I suspect some would find it too frivolous, and others too disturbing - so I hesitate to recommend it in general.  

Still, if you want something a bit different to dip into, and are less squeamish than I am, it’s certainly worth a read. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews