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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this felt like a redemption story.
i found martha quite literally awful. she leans into victim mentality and exhausts the people around her. she acts terribly and lacks accountability.
but although the main character is utterly unbearable, the author has this ability to transcend her awfulness and tell a wholesome story. a story about how martha is awful and comes to discover her own awfulness, but starts to take steps to just go for it and be better. the authors paints this image of how martha is sinking her own ship whilst everyone around her is throwing life jackets at her until they run out.
the author had this way of really leaning into ambiguity. by not putting to words martha’s illness she abstracts from that being the sole reason of martha’s downward spiral, or accounting for her actions, how she treats others, and how she treats herself.
the ending is also ambiguous and really emphasises that two people together are really the only people in the world.
…
“he had an extravagant energy that animated him and anesthetized whoever he was talking to and was in on the joke of how beautiful he was.”
“because when suffering is unavoidable, the only thing one gets to choose is the backdrop.”
“he was old and did not believe in computers or women coming to work in trousers.”
“that i'm not good at being a person. i seem to find it more difficult to be alive than other people.”
“i’ve been a new man for six months.”
i found martha quite literally awful. she leans into victim mentality and exhausts the people around her. she acts terribly and lacks accountability.
but although the main character is utterly unbearable, the author has this ability to transcend her awfulness and tell a wholesome story. a story about how martha is awful and comes to discover her own awfulness, but starts to take steps to just go for it and be better. the authors paints this image of how martha is sinking her own ship whilst everyone around her is throwing life jackets at her until they run out.
the author had this way of really leaning into ambiguity. by not putting to words martha’s illness she abstracts from that being the sole reason of martha’s downward spiral, or accounting for her actions, how she treats others, and how she treats herself.
the ending is also ambiguous and really emphasises that two people together are really the only people in the world.
…
“he had an extravagant energy that animated him and anesthetized whoever he was talking to and was in on the joke of how beautiful he was.”
“because when suffering is unavoidable, the only thing one gets to choose is the backdrop.”
“he was old and did not believe in computers or women coming to work in trousers.”
“that i'm not good at being a person. i seem to find it more difficult to be alive than other people.”
“i’ve been a new man for six months.”
emotional
sad
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
this book was so, so good. sorrow and bliss is a story about martha, whose life has been derailed by mental illness that has been misdiagnosed time and time again. when she finally receives the right diagnosis and treatment, she is angry and resentful about the time she has lost.
strangely, i felt soothed by this book. if you sometimes struggle to be, to wade forward through the quicksand that is depression and anxiety, i think and hope you’ll see martha as a mirror, a reminder that things are bad but then they’re better. there are so many lovable characters within, so many kindnesses, so much love. and i genuinely laughed out loud many times, mostly at martha’s sister ingrid.
do yourself a favor and read this one.
strangely, i felt soothed by this book. if you sometimes struggle to be, to wade forward through the quicksand that is depression and anxiety, i think and hope you’ll see martha as a mirror, a reminder that things are bad but then they’re better. there are so many lovable characters within, so many kindnesses, so much love. and i genuinely laughed out loud many times, mostly at martha’s sister ingrid.
do yourself a favor and read this one.
Introspective and thoughtful. Shows the struggles of misdiagnosis both physically and mentally. Don't think I was in the write mind to listen to it, ended up being sad and a little boring but might be worth revisting at a different time.
I love this book. It was funny and heart-wrenching, and hopeful all at the same time.
I thought that the author did a wonderful job of exploring how mental illness can deeply impact relationships and loved ones along with the person who is suffering from them. I don’t think that aspect of mental health is discussed often and I really liked how the author tackled it.
Martha’s story showed how although mental illness is debilitating it doesn’t have to mean the end of life as we know it. The story showed Martha finding a balance between acknowledging that she isn’t to blame for the ways her illness has impacted her life, while also taking accountability for her life and her relationships. It is a story that I think we can all get something from.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was that towards the end of the book Martha’s behaviour becomes insufferable. I know it’s accurate to someone struggling with mental health but I found it hard to read.
I thought that the author did a wonderful job of exploring how mental illness can deeply impact relationships and loved ones along with the person who is suffering from them. I don’t think that aspect of mental health is discussed often and I really liked how the author tackled it.
Martha’s story showed how although mental illness is debilitating it doesn’t have to mean the end of life as we know it. The story showed Martha finding a balance between acknowledging that she isn’t to blame for the ways her illness has impacted her life, while also taking accountability for her life and her relationships. It is a story that I think we can all get something from.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was that towards the end of the book Martha’s behaviour becomes insufferable. I know it’s accurate to someone struggling with mental health but I found it hard to read.
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the last 100 pages were so beautiful and empathetic and moving, it made up for the overly long and sometimes slow beginning
Ok I really really liked this it’s been on my TBR for ages because I loved you be mother and this was another great one from miss meg.
I thought the depiction of the inner world of all of her relarionships was so lively and beautiful- it reminded me of Really Good Actually that part about the health inspector, so devastating and also quotidian the whole a marriage is a world of its own vibe. I was going to say like the way she wrote the aunty or the dad was in particular so heavy with something but thrn the list keeps going on- how she wrote Patrick and Nicholas and Rowland etc etc
Like every relationship is person is genuinely so full of that mundane tragedy that comes from like the mixing of vulnerability and kindness and cruelty (of perception) idkkkkk.
It was very witty I LOLed at many times - like drinking tea with the tea bag in makes you purse your lips like you’re trying to filter rubbish out when you drink from the ganga river.
I appreciate what she was trying to do with the anonymity of the illness but as a nosy person I was like pls just tell me which Ik is like completely missing the point she was trying to make so sorry for being nosy not artful.
With You Be Mother my biggest gripe was that the ending was like way too neat but maybe also that’s the perogative of a fiction writer- I feel like this ending also had elements of that but a bit less so so I didn’t feel as mad about it.
Anyways thanks Meg Mason for another emotionally rich character led contemporary literary fiction hit 🙏💯
I thought the depiction of the inner world of all of her relarionships was so lively and beautiful- it reminded me of Really Good Actually that part about the health inspector, so devastating and also quotidian the whole a marriage is a world of its own vibe. I was going to say like the way she wrote the aunty or the dad was in particular so heavy with something but thrn the list keeps going on- how she wrote Patrick and Nicholas and Rowland etc etc
Like every relationship is person is genuinely so full of that mundane tragedy that comes from like the mixing of vulnerability and kindness and cruelty (of perception) idkkkkk.
It was very witty I LOLed at many times - like drinking tea with the tea bag in makes you purse your lips like you’re trying to filter rubbish out when you drink from the ganga river.
I appreciate what she was trying to do with the anonymity of the illness but as a nosy person I was like pls just tell me which Ik is like completely missing the point she was trying to make so sorry for being nosy not artful.
With You Be Mother my biggest gripe was that the ending was like way too neat but maybe also that’s the perogative of a fiction writer- I feel like this ending also had elements of that but a bit less so so I didn’t feel as mad about it.
Anyways thanks Meg Mason for another emotionally rich character led contemporary literary fiction hit 🙏💯