Luke’s Reviews > Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things > Status Update

I can't wait to read this! I got an advance copy of it at winter residency, and it looks fantastic.

Rebecca wrote: "I can't wait to read this! I got an advance copy of it at winter residency, and it looks fantastic."

I've always thought that Jenny Lawson is absolutely hilarious, but I have some issues with her memoirs, though that's more to do with my pickiness with what I want out of memoirs than it is to do with her writing. This book is certainly entertaining, and occasionally it'll hit me like a punch in the eyes because of my relation to what she's discussing, but she doesn't always stay focused on mental illness, which bothers me a bit. Still definitely worth reading though!

I finished reading it, and there were moments when I busted out laughing, but the writing wasn't particularly skilled. Still, there were times when what she wrote spoke to me, particularly the last couple of essays. I suppose I was hoping for something humorous yet with resonance, but Lawson didn't quite deliver.

Rebecca wrote: "I finished reading it, and there were moments when I busted out laughing, but the writing wasn't particularly skilled. Still, there were times when what she wrote spoke to me, particularly the last..."

I have the exact same conflict with her writing. She's technically a blogger by trade with SOME sort of journalism degree (I think), but that's why her writing tends to be more BuzzFeed and less The Atlantic. Her first book did nothing for me, but I liked this one a lot more for its resonance, too--though it seemed like only the occasional essay dealt with mental health rather than the other way around, which bothered me. I decided I really liked it, though, when I started quoting passages from it to friends and they're like "Ohhh, so THAT'S what depression is like! Dude, that SUCKS." It succeeds as a book because it helps people without mental illness to better understand mental illness, so for that reason I was happy.