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A review by lolabrigita
Happy Never After: why the happiness fairytale is driving us mad by Jill Stark
5.0
For me, Jill Stark’s book was the standout of the year – to the point where I’m actually re-reading it in audio book form, immensely enjoying the sound of her dulcet Scotstralian tones.
From a societal perspective, Stark had it all. She’d reached what she thought was the pinnacle of her career, publishing a book (High Sobriety about her year off alcohol, also very good) which became a bestseller. Her job as Health Reporter at Melbourne newspaper The Age brought her satisfaction. She had bought an apartment, which she shared with a doting pet cat called Hamish and was even dating a lithe and well-sculpted young AFL player. She was only in her mid-thirties, but she’d “made it”.
Stark has also suffered from crippling anxiety all her life and shortly after publishing her book, her world came crashing down around her ears, as her mental health spiralled out of control. Unable to work, she struggles to piece herself back together within the Australian mental health system, encountering many barriers along the way (such as a psychologist who ‘breaks up’ with her, what a terrible thing to do to a patient).
In this fantastic book, she examines our obsession with ‘happiness’ – how this often fleeting emotion is marketed to us as the thing we must all aspire to and what it does to our mental state. She seamlessly interweaves fact, case studies and interviews with her own personal experience, creating a text that suggests that perhaps we collectively waste our energies by chasing something we can only ever briefly achieve.
Read more here: https://www.birdgehls.com/australian-books-2018/
From a societal perspective, Stark had it all. She’d reached what she thought was the pinnacle of her career, publishing a book (High Sobriety about her year off alcohol, also very good) which became a bestseller. Her job as Health Reporter at Melbourne newspaper The Age brought her satisfaction. She had bought an apartment, which she shared with a doting pet cat called Hamish and was even dating a lithe and well-sculpted young AFL player. She was only in her mid-thirties, but she’d “made it”.
Stark has also suffered from crippling anxiety all her life and shortly after publishing her book, her world came crashing down around her ears, as her mental health spiralled out of control. Unable to work, she struggles to piece herself back together within the Australian mental health system, encountering many barriers along the way (such as a psychologist who ‘breaks up’ with her, what a terrible thing to do to a patient).
In this fantastic book, she examines our obsession with ‘happiness’ – how this often fleeting emotion is marketed to us as the thing we must all aspire to and what it does to our mental state. She seamlessly interweaves fact, case studies and interviews with her own personal experience, creating a text that suggests that perhaps we collectively waste our energies by chasing something we can only ever briefly achieve.
Read more here: https://www.birdgehls.com/australian-books-2018/