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| Flatiron Books |
Jenny Lawson
2015
The Summary
"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 thing 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 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."
The Good
Furiously Happy is uproariously funny, brutally honest, completely candid, and absolutely absurd. Jenny Lawson has a quirky sense of humor that sometimes borders on vulgar--no, rather she cross the line on vulgar and waves at you from the other side--but the shock value in her stories keeps them interesting and her ability to capture an unusual story, a tragic event, or a strange set of circumstances, makes her second book thoroughly hilarious and patently insane.
Lawson has a unique way of telling a story. She frequently deviates from a set path, skipping merrily along, before she reverts back to the original narrative. She distracts herself with new stories, but she has ADD, among other disorders, which explains quite a lot--and, I think, tends to make her storytelling interesting.
Her history might be a little fractured by her inability to stay focused, but I think she perfectly conveys herself and her story. She shows her audience her real self and adequately characterizes her family and friends. She really brings everyone to life, showing off their unique characteristics and attitudes, and offers extraordinary stories.
Like how her husband bought her a mounted bear head, which is when she learned he really did love her. Or how her father stumbled across a stuffed giraffe and discovered a tribe of individuals with a love for ethically achieved, taxidermied animals, just like Jenny. Or her strange penchant for hosting midnight cat rodeos. Or her unusual encounter with a doctor who removed her gallbladder (an experience which, she claims, proves she's turning into a zombie one organ at a time).
I mean, you can't not laugh at the ridiculous, sometimes terrible things that happen to her and the equally terrible ideas that strike her fancy. Altogether, it's a hilarious and irreverent romp through mental disorder, family drama, and horrible things that are inadvertently funny.
The Bad
I've already admitted it, Furiously Happy is an odd story. Sometimes fragmented and just plain weird, it's a strange, scintillating and comically absurd memoir--but I absolutely loved it. Lawson isn't a perfect author or even a perfect person, but I found her quirks, her struggles, and her unusual conversations with her husband and friends to be appealing.
It's funny, and it's relateable.
The Ugly
Mental illness isn't a pretty thing to witness. Lawson had a way of making me laugh, which sometimes lessens the impact of witnessing her struggle with mental illness, but, as she points out, it's still "no fucking picnic."
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