Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea.
But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.
As Jenny says:
"Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over to your house without telling your husband first because you suspect he would say no since he's never particularly liked kangaroos. And that would be ridiculous because no one would invite a herd of kangaroos into their house. Two is the limit. I speak from personal experience. My husband says that none is the new limit. I say he should have been clearer about that before I rented all those kangaroos.
"Most of my favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you'd never guess because we've learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal. Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, 'We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.' Except go back and cross out the word 'hiding.'"
Furiously Happy is about "taking those moments when things are fine and making them amazing, because those moments are what make us who we are, and they're the same moments we take into battle with us when our brains declare war on our very existence. It's the difference between "surviving life" and "living life". It's the difference between "taking a shower" and "teaching your monkey butler how to shampoo your hair." It's the difference between being "sane" and being "furiously happy."
Lawson is beloved around the world for her inimitable humor and honesty, and in Furiously Happy, she is at her snort-inducing funniest. This is a book about embracing everything that makes us who we are - the beautiful and the flawed - and then using it to find joy in fantastic and outrageous ways. Because as Jenny's mom says, "Maybe 'crazy' isn't so bad after all." Sometimes crazy is just right.
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Community Reviews
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Sooo basically... Everyone Read This Book. Immediately.
Jenny Lawson - You Are My People.
#laughingcrying #cryinglaughing
"When cancer sufferers fight, recover, and go into remission we laud their bravery. We wear ribbons to celebrate their fight. We call them survivors. Because they are. When depression sufferers fight, recover, and go into remission we seldom even know, simply because so many suffering the dark... ashamed to admit something they see as a personal weakness... afraid that people will worry, and more afraid that they won't. We find ourselves unable to do anything but cling to the couch and force ourselves to breathe. When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker... but as survivors. Survivors who don't get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends my family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like. I hope one day to be better, and I'm pretty sure I will be. I hope one day I live in a world where the personal fight for mental stability is viewed with pride and public cheers instead of shame. I hope it for you too. But until then, it starts slowly. I celebrate every one of you reading this. I celebrate the fact that you've fought your battle and continue to win. I celebrate the fact you may not understand the battle, but you pick up the baton dropped by someone you love until they can carry it again. I survived and I remind myself that each time we go through this, we get a little stronger. We learn new tricks on the battlefield. We learn them in terrible ways, but we use them. We don't struggle in vain. We win. We are alive."
Story: 3
Writing: 4
Characters: 3
Learning: 4
Ending: 4
Entertainment: 3.5
I wouldn't have read this book if we hadn't chosen it for book-club. I read Jenny's first book and loved it, but I will admit that the subject matter was something that I wasn't sure I really wanted to read about. I'm really glad that I did because I think that this book had the perfect balance of humor, humility, and education.
Story: 3.5 Being a memoir, there isn't a "story" per se, but there is a structure of sorts that Lawson (or maybe her editors) is successful at executing.
Writing: 4 Lawson excels here with her ability to blend the absurd with the tragic - managing the LOL moments with not-to-low lows.
Characters: 3, While the characters in this book are not created, we do have players - Jenny, Victor, Haley. We learn lots about Jenny, but one cannot help wonder about Haley, and especially Victor's take is on this. I know it's not his book, but wish there was some way to incorporate more about them.
Learning: 4 One of the major accomplishments of this book is the education factor. If you have never had to deal with someone who has a mental illness (and how fortunate for you), this book is a revelation for what people are going through.
Ending: 4 It's difficult to wrap up a memoir, especially when you are still a young woman with lots more chapters of your life left, but I thought Lawson managed this with finesse.
Entertainment: 3.5 - It's difficult to give a book that is mainly about mental health issues a high rating on the entertainment factor. It feels like you are laughing at someone's misfortune. But, this book doesn't make you feel that way. It also is not a book only about LOL moments.
I would recommend this book to anyone.
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