I admire Jenny Lawson so much, even more now that I’ve read this book. She’s frequently very open on her blog about her mental illness, but she’s never been this open before. It must have taken a great deal of courage to talk so freely about such personal things. Then again, maybe it didn’t. Jenny herself admits in the book there’s a kind of freedom that you can only achieve once you stop caring what other people think and truly accept yourself, flaws and all. She lays it bare, and we her readers not only accept her, but we say, “Us, too!” And then her oversharing habit becomes an extended sort of internet-based therapy.
It’s genius.
And also, in between talking seriously (and not so seriously) about “her crazy,” Jenny is also frequently just funny, whether it’s in recounting conversations (or fights) with her beleaguered husband, Victor, or talking about her trip to Australia where she dresses as a kangaroo while meeting a kangaroo, or going on extended rants about things like the function of appendices (both the organ type and book type). It’s a very entertaining read. I got this book in audio, after reading her first in hardcover, and I can’t decide which I like better.
Both are best consumed in small doses, as Jenny does have a very specific style that holds for the entire book, and there isn’t any narrative arc to provide tension or relief of tension (this can be said of any memoir/essay book I’ve read, which is why I’ve never given any memoir/essay book five stars. I need an arc, people).
But this book was a joy from beginning to end, and it’s probably a must read for people living with mental illnesses of all kinds, and for people whose loved ones are living with mental illness.
The Victor stories, hands down, are my favorites from either book or her blog. Poor Victor.
You know he secretly loves it.
There is no way Victor and Jenny Lawson would still be married if they didn’t love each other very much and have a great deal of patience with each other. I am married to someone who occasionally has “funny little episodes” (as he likes to describe them to minimize the impact), and they are not something that you’d choose to have to deal with if you didn’t have to. My husband is nowhere near where Jenny Lawson appears to be on the illness spectrum, physical or mental, but it’s still trying enough when it gets really bad. I hope both Jenny and Victor have outside help when it gets to be really bad for them. I know I couldn’t manage without my friends in those situations.
I’m sure he’s the most patient person when it comes to her mental health, but she also just does weird shit all the time. Like the middle of the night cat rodeo. It’s in those instances where I really feel like he is mostly pretending to be annoyed, because really he should know better by now that she’s gonna do stuff like that, and he probably loves that about her.