I absolutely fell in love with Jenny Lawson’s first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir. Detailing her unconventional childhood out in the West Texas boonies, Lawson seemed to be the obvious heir to David Sedaris. While her book tackled serious issues like her difficulty being “normal” and her miscarriage, it seemed like she was more interested in being funny than insightful.
Hew newest book, Furiously Happy flips that ratio. It’s one part funny, three parts an uncomfortable discussion of mental issues. It’s full of the weird dark humor you might expect from someone whose book cover is a weirdly cheerful taxidermied raccoon named Rory (Lawson also uses Rory to sneak into her husband’s video conferences to test which of his colleagues are cool). She shares her reality of living with clinical depression, severe anxiety and rheumatoid arthritis and how she just can’t get out of bed some days. It’s occasionally a eureka moment-that this cool, funny lady that I admire gets it.
Furiously Happy is a good book, but it just doesn’t compare to Lawson’s first. That makes sense; Lawson had a lifetime of material to pick from for her first book, and now she has to use what’s left. Her first book also felt more like an actual book. This one feels like a pile of blog posting, haphazardly organized in some kind of order. Her jokes don’t always land here, and when they do, they elicit grins or chuckles, but not the embarrassing choking-on-my-drink-in-public guffaws the last one gifted me.
I’m not saying Furiously Happy is a bad book, but it is a disappointing one. I kept waiting for it go get funnier. Then I felt guilty for whining that her frank description of mental illness wasn’t funny enough-dance, monkey, dance! Still, if you’re a fan of Lawson’s work, it’s worth picking up. Even her so-so work is better than a lot of other stuff out there.
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1) This has been on my reading list for awhile but I think I always put it off precisely because of her penchant for her uncomfortable real talk about depression and mental illness. It’s really great that she can, but damn sometimes it’s hard to read.
2) THANK YOU for The Girl on the Train comment. Everyone has raved about it and I always wonder if we read the same book. It is so predictable and stupid I find it infuriating!
That book was an abomination. I read it for my office book club and then sat there as all of my coworkers raved about her ability to write strong women (I’m sorry, what?!) and how it was so fun to solve the mystery. As the newest hire, I just sat there quietly and then wrote an angry review at home.
The angry review FYI, in case you want to rage all over again: https://expandingbookshelf.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins/
You have more self-restraint than I do!
Also: that was my exact thought process the whole time through that book: “That can’t be how it’s going to end right? Because that will be dumb. No she’s gotta go somewhere else with it. OH MY GOD THAT IS HOW IT ENDED I HATE EVERYTHING”
It’s possible we are the same person.
My book club read this and felt the same way. I love that she’s bravely talking about mental illness and want to champion the book for that fact alone. But if we judge a book based on “did I enjoy it?” the answer is a resounding no. Had her first book not been quite so fantastically funny, I might not have picked this up expecting the same. As is, it was a bit of a let down.
I feel the same way. The first book has so many chapters that have stayed with me.
I liked this one because I like Jenny, but if I hadn’t known her voice so well it wouldn’t have resonated.
Beyonce 4Eva. Knock knock, motherfucker.