Furiously Happy

Published: 2015
Author: Jenny Lawson

A better blog than book

Depression isn’t normally regarded as something funny. It’s nasty, it’s serious, it destroys people – not what we would regard as a source of great hilarity. But that’s where we go wrong. Some of the greatest humour can be found in the darkest places and that’s what Jenny Lawson, a writer who suffers from ADD, OCD, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and an anxiety disorder, has done in her book Furiously Happy. Part memoir, part stream of consciousness this is Lawson’s attempt to describe her life and how her various illnesses affect her life.

The book is a series of articles rather than a linear narrative and the subjects jump from arguments Lawson has with her husband Victor (truly the most patient man in the universe) to her fondness for making her cats ride her taxidermy racoon Rory to what she’s actually thinking during her therapy sessions. There’s very little structure to the book, simply the common thread of how Jenny lives with her various illnesses and after a while I did find that led to me slightly disengaging from the book. There was nothing to keep me hooked and I felt that I could dip in and out of the book without missing anything. When it’s so easy to access blogs, including Lawson’s great one, I’m not sure what the specific appeal of a book like this is.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book – I did, there’s lots of funny moments and Lawson’s writing is fabulous. There are some joyous moments and some incredibly sad scenes which will help anyone who hasn’t ever experienced mental illness understand a little more of what it is like. No-one should come away from Furiously Happy thinking that telling people to “cheer up” or “just snap out of it” is in any way helpful. Lawson proves that it is possible to be depressed and happy at the same time, depression isn’t just a lack of happiness nor is it impossible to see the funny side of life but be deeply depressed at the same time. The introduction of Rory the racoon and his picture on the front cover of the book will make me smile for a long time.

As an insight into life with mental illness this is a great book, but if I’m honest I think I’d prefer just to read Lawson’s blog rather than her books.