'Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things' By Jenny Lawson

Author:  Jenny Lawson
Publisher:  Flat Iron Books
Date Read:  03/18/2017
Rating: 4/5 Stars

The thing about reading a book about an author's mental illness and finding so many pieces of your self scattered among the pages is that it makes you feel a slightly discomfiting combination of "well, at least I'm not alone in this" and "does this mean I need psychiatric care?" Like Jenny Lawson, I've struggled with my own demons and my biggest enemy has so often been me and, also like Jenny Lawson, I am usually able to laugh about it. But then again, sometimes I can't laugh about it and it's everything I can do to remain minimally functional: get dressed, go to work, go through the motions of what I absolutely have to do before I hit that point where I absolutely can't.


A particular quote I highlighted in Furiously Happy really spoke to me in that regard: "You can accomplish everything a normal person does for hours but then you hit a wall and fall into bed thinking, 'I wish I could stop breathing for an hour because it's exhausting, all this inhaling and exhaling.'" Sometimes normal, every day activities like small talk, being around other people, being in any position other than supine, etc. are just exhausting. Thank you, Jenny, for being a successful person who understands how that feels.


Back to the book... The title really says it all: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things. That's exactly what this book encompasses. It made me laugh pretty often and it only made me sad a couple of times, despite having some occasional heavy subject matter. I mostly feel that Jenny Lawson was so brave to write this. She even talks in the book about being afraid that her readers would shun her if she wrote about her mental illness; however, instead her readers felt a lot like I felt upon completion of the book: just thankful that she shared her story in such a lighthearted, honest way. In the beginning of the book, she says: "This is a funny book about living with mental illness. It sounds like a terrible combination, but personally, I'm mentally ill and some of the most hysterical people I know are well. So if you don't like the book then maybe you're just not crazy enough to enjoy it. Either way, you win."


That's pretty on point, right there.


Jenny Lawson: "I've HAD IT. I AM GOING TO BE FURIOUSLY HAPPY, OUT OF SHEER SPITE."

Me: "Right behind ya, sister." 


Review First Posted on Goodreads ✰✰✰✰