Broken (in the best possible way)
By Jenny Lawson
As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.
With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor―the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball―is present throughout.
Reading
Broken is like looking through glasses with the wrong prescription: at
first it's funny to see how weird everything looks, but after a while it
just gives you a headache. Lawson is funny in smaller doses (hence the
success of her blog, and why so many of the chapters are written like
blog entries) but the constant digressions and look-at-the-outrageous-
Luckily,
or unluckily, as it happens, the anecdotal stories are interspersed
with chapters on various medical maladies Lawson suffers from, which are
interesting, at least, even if the diatribe on her insurance problems
goes on for way too long. And obviously, you could argue that the length of
the diatribe is the result of her insurers actions, not hers, but still,
there's a point at which this is basically masturbation, not art.
I
sound grumpy and it's probably harsher than necessary, but although
I've found Lawson occasionally amusing in the past, it does feel like
her tragicomic theatrics are worn out in this book. Maybe I'm just older
and more risible. Maybe I'm expecting everyone to have aged just like
me, into a sedate curmudgeonly attitude that doesn't find the mere idea
of little plastic penises hilarious.
If you read and like her blog, I assume you will like this book. For better and for worse, it's all just more of the same.
34: A Book Written By An Author Who Is Neurodivergent
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