Book Review: Furiously Happy
By Jenny Lawson
Macmillan
ISBN: 978- 1250077028
Ages 14-18
353 Pages
“What I want you to know: Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. Clinical depression is no f*cking picnic.” – Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy
In her second memoir, Jenny Lawson (aka the Bloggess) examines her experience with severe depression, anxiety, and other conditions using humor. The book is truly a true confessions book, with Lawson truly giving a no-holds-barred look at everything you ever wanted to know but were too afraid to ask that’s going on in her head.
The book doesn’t always seem to follow a linear timeline, telling stories of when she was a child, to an adult, all interspersed with Lawson’s wry and painfully honest discussion of mental illness. She manages to humanize depression and mental illness, and she does it by reaching out and making it extremely relatable, not shameful or embarrassing. Her refusal to be embarrassed is incredibly inspiring, and her overall message is something that I think we could all use. Although the book includes mild cursing, the book is a good fit for teens who enjoy memoirs, humor, or just some really weird stories about taxidermy (including the story behind the raccoon on the cover).
Deanna Schiffman 