Review by keepreadingbooks - Sorrow and Bliss

keepreadingbooks 's review for:

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

4.25

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Sorrow and Bliss was another sad-funny book I read in January, wanting to continue with something similar after We All Want Impossible Things. And I ended up loving it even more than Impossible Things; I couldn’t stop reading, and barely turned on my tv for two days straight.

I had and have a lot of thoughts about this one, and I’m not sure I can distill them into something short and sweet. I recognised myself in some of the things Martha struggles with in this one, which was occasionally uncomfortable and sometimes comforting. Other things I couldn’t relate to at all, and somewhere around the middle I got really frustrated with Martha. She’s never a likeable person as such, but she becomes so intensely dislikeable that you want to shake her, and it’s relentless for about 100 pages. The self-sabotaging and self-destructiveness become almost overwhelming. This part reminded me about The Bell Jar (a book I, unlike Sorrow and Bliss, didn’t end up loving). But I stuck it out and I suggest you do the same, because the ending made it worthwhile for me.

I think the most important thing to address is the question of whether mental illness here is portrayed as making you a “bad person” or as nothing more than selfishness, as I know some readers had that experience with the book. I wholeheartedly disagree with this interpretation. My own subjective interpretation is that mental illness is not a carte blanche to being an asshole. That does not mean that mental illness is not a struggle and the sufferer is not finding it hard to exist on the same terms as everybody else, and it can be harder for those suffering from mental illness to not think of themselves and their own needs first, but, truly, it’s not much of an excuse for generally being ungrateful, rude, and inconsiderate of other people’s feelings. People with mental illnesses can be assholes just like anybody else, and may need to be called out for it just like anybody else. I have personal experience with this side of things, though at a smaller scale, and I often struggle not to take over and demand that everything is done according to my wishes and feelings every minute of every day. You can struggle with your own demons and be at your worst from time to time while still being grateful for the love and help of others. (Sort of a disclaimer: I’m sure there are mental disorders that can make you unable to do even this, and I want to emphasise that Martha also benefits from finally getting a diagnosis and the right medicine for her).

Content Warnings