A review by literallykalasin
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas

3.0

At about the midway point of this memoir about family and friendship, Abigail Thomas admits she hates chronological order. The layout of this very quick book would agree with that statement; this memoir doesn't so much tell a story as it instead lays out brief vignettes of everyday life. Some recount big events, like her daughter's cancer, and some are quiet moments -- making food, recounting a dream, painting in her shed. It recounts a life lived, and children raised, a friend made and kept for 35 years, but at the end of the book, I felt no more enlightened or moved than at the beginning.

The writing is pleasant and the format is brief and breezy. It is certainly a cosy little read. At the same time, I can't see myself coming back to this as a book with a plot that I can recount. It's the reading equivalent of cotton candy; sweet and pleasant, eventually fading into nothing.