Rating: ★★★★

Summary:

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Literary Fiction

Publication Date: 2nd September 2024

No. Pages: 352 Pages

Keywords: Mental Health, Motherhood, Relationships

Content Warnings: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Substance Abuse

Format: Hardback, Paperback, E-Book, Audiobook

Review

Meg Mason does an incredible job at describing a life lived along with mental illness, perfectly capturing a plethora of feelings: shame, guilt, happiness, self-indulgence, and, ultimately, utter and complete sadness.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever said? Or the worst thing you’ve done? Whatever it is, Martha Friel has said, and done, much worse. Or at least that’s what she would say. The truth is that she has done awful things, as well as awfully good things, just like anyone else.

This is the centre of Meg Mason’s latest novel “Sorrow and Bliss”, which narrates Martha’s story, her struggle with mental illness, and the deterioration of her marriage. Is Martha a bad person if she does bad things? Or is she good if her intentions are good? This is the question that lingers throughout the story, whose answer will reveal more about ourselves than about this character.

“Sorrow and Bliss” is an encompassing life journey: emotional, hilarious, disturbing, even embarrassing at times. It’s a terribly realistic portrait of mental illness. Terrible like any art that forces us to look at our lives, to look at reality in the eyes and recognise it for what it is, and that’s always terrible. At the very core, it’s a story of survival and reliance against one’s self-destruction.

We follow Martha throughout most of her life: from when she was a child, living in a chaotic home with her beloved sister; to her teenage years, during which a “bomb went off in her head” as the first symptoms of illness started to show, and no doctor, no pill, no one seemed to be able to help; finally, to adulthood, the first jobs and first heartbreaks.

Meg Mason does an incredible job at describing a life lived along with mental illness, perfectly capturing a plethora of feelings: shame, guilt, happiness, self-indulgence, and, ultimately, utter and complete sadness. We see Martha dealing with these emotions as she tries to make sense of them and learns to coexist with even the darkest parts of herself. And we are right there with her as she goes through this journey, which makes this book feel almost like a confession. We gain access to such a hidden and precious part of this character, something that we rarely would experience in real life, so that the whole reading experience feels somehow sacred, something to be savoured and handled with the utmost care.

Other than mental health, the other big theme of this novel is motherhood, which Meg Mason explores deeply and without judgement. Throughout the book, we are exposed to the highs, the lows, the hardships, and the beauty of what it means to be a mother, as Martha wrestles with the idea of having children. The book explores the concept of agency of motherhood, and we also reflect on the concept of a “mother figure”, and how our relationship with a mother (or a caregiver) shapes our personality and our life in ways we might not expect.

Meg Mason manages to write about such complex and sometimes even disturbing topics with great confidence. Her voice is strong, her writing is smooth and her sense of humour is just delicious. The story unfolds quickly so that there is always something that keeps us glued to the pages. Once we reach the end, we wish the story would be twice as long.

We are not ready to leave Martha’s side, we want to hear more, we want to make sure she’ll be okay. And if she’s okay, it means that we probably will be too.

The Round Up

Standout Quote or Moment: “Being sad is, like writing a funny food column, something I can do anywhere.”

Read If: You’re looking for something funny that will also break your heart.

Similar Books: “Post-Traumatic” by Chantal V. Johnson or “Where Reasons End” by Yiun Li

Lasting Impression: “Sorrow and Bliss” is a great read, not easily forgotten. I still find myself thinking about Martha months after turning the last page, as I felt I learnt so much from her, and found so much comfort in her story.

Written by Roberta Guarini

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