BOOK REVIEW: Furiously Happy – by Jenny Lawson

Title: Furiously Happy
Author: Jenny Lawson
Genre: Non Fiction, Humor, Memoir
First published: September 22nd 2015
Finished reading: February 28th 2016
Pages: 329

“Don’t make the same mistakes that everyone else makes. Make wonderful mistakes. Make the kind of mistakes that make people so shocked that they have no other choice but to be a little impressed.”

I have been wanting to read more non fiction lately and this memoir by Jenny Lawson looked like an interesting choice. Now that I’ve read it I can say Furiously Happy is just that! If you want a good laugh, make sure to read this book. I never thought a book about mental ilness could be this funny… It truly is refreshing how Jenny Lawson openly tells us about how she tries to live with her mental ilness and I can see why her story can be inspiring to those who are in a similar situation. In this memoir funny moments are mixed with some more serious themes, but in such a way that it’s quite easy to keep reading. The pace slows down a bit in the middle (especially the part about her trip to Australia), but not enough for me to be really bothered by it. All in all it’s a really interesting and entertaining read if you are looking for something different. Just one last warning: reading it in public may cause people to look at you funny and think you lost you marbles because you might snort/giggle/laugh out loud manically while reading this book… Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 😉

In this second memoir Jenny Lawson talks about her lifelong battle with mental illness. She decided that the best way to live with it all is to be furiously happy without limitations whenever she can. Even if that means kangaroos in her house, use her father’s taxidermist skills to have a stuffed raccoon at home, dress up her cats and other things that people might find odd. Her husband doesn’t always agree with her ideas, but it does lead to some very funny situations… Like she writes in her memoir:

“Most of my favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you’d never guess because we’ve learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal. Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, ‘We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.’ Except go back and cross out the word ‘hiding.'”

Jenny Lawson shows that there can always be found a way to learn to live with mental illness and to improve quality of life. Each person is unique and has to find their own way, but being ‘furiously happy’ has helped many people during the last few years.

First of all, I really like the way Furiously Happy is written. It doesn’t happen often that I find myself laughing out loud while I’m reading a book, but this memoir is an exception. Jenny Lawson isn’t afraid to admit the ugly and embarrassing details, and this is part of the reason why this memoir works so well. Honest, hilarious, refreshing, entertaining… If you are looking for a new way to see mental ilness, Furiously Happy is definitely recommended.