Book Review: Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest: "I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ‘normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."

Jenny’s readings are standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they are to have her sign their books. Furiously Happy appeals to Jenny's core fan base but also transcends it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family—and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let's Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy—and who doesn't want a bit more of that?

My Review: 

'I didn't necessarily want my life to end. I just wanted it to stop being such a bastard.' 

Jenny was tired of her mental health issues taking over her life and decided it was time for payback-now she was going to piss off the universe by being furiously happy and it became an internet thing that appealed to many people who understood some of what she was dealing with. She has a successful blog where she can interact with others and share her thoughts https://thebloggess.com/ and has written a couple of successful books about her life. Reading about Jenny's life has been helpful to me in dealing with my own issues and she does it with such honesty and humour, which makes it an entertaining book as well as being in the self help kind of category.

'I collect neurological disorders like other people collect comic books.'

I honestly don't know HOW Jenny copes with her conditions-personality disorders, anxiety disorders, OCD, sleep disruptions, phobias...it seems like too much for one person to cope with and be a functioning human being. She describes how when it all gets too much, she can just hide under a table at a book signing or in a hotel room or at home until she can regain control again. That sounds like a total nightmare but the good thing is that she has a support network of family and friends who are there for her. Some of us are lucky to have that but not everyone with mental health conditions have people there for them, which makes it vital that help is there in the community for them.

Jenny talks about her fear of white coats and how that can turn a medical appointment into an ordeal that involves a lot of fainting. Can you imagine the embarrassment of passing out during a smear test? Fainting when you take the dog to the vet and having unimpressed dogs staring at you? Imagine going to see your doctor and seeing imaginary squirrels everywhere. Finding yourself saying the most inappropriate things during these medical examinations and scaring the health professionals? The humiliation of things like that must have been dreadful for her.

I loved the whole saga of Rory the raccoon and how she makes him talk to people including a probably freaked out mail man and those on video conference calls with her husband! I laughed so much at the latex allergy story with the sheepskin condom! I sniggered at the bear on the mirror idea and trying to get him arms for added fun. I laughed myself stupid at her experience going to get a microdermabrasion and becoming frightened that the bacterial colony on her face might be wiped out in a genocide incident! It was funny, endearing but also made me think what it must be like to actually live like that from day to day. I have so much admiration for Jenny and her family in how they cope.

'It's not like you're going to be attacked by a zombie and think 'jesus, if only I had my snowglobe'..'

There are other amusing moments that are completely random subjects-Mary Poppins upskirting incidents, how the zombie apocalypse happening while at the airport would be a worse disaster, saliva production, days of the week underwear (remember that?!). There are serious points too about the stigma of mental health with being told to pull yourself together and cheer up, and people telling you not to take medication as you don't need it. I recognised some of what I thought were just my dumb habits and realised they are minor side effects from the depression, which actually made me feel better! There were also times in the book where I actually felt guilty for laughing at the things Jenny wrote about. The only bit I didn't enjoy was the trip to Australia as it seemed a bit

I really liked this book. To see someone like Jenny be so brutally honest about her life and her challenges was pretty inspiring. I loved the humour and the way that she could poke fun at herself. I've never really wanted to read real life books about mental health but read this based on other reviews and I was glad I did. It was different from my usual reads and I very much enjoyed it.

Read February 2020
4 stars.