A review by okiecozyreader
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
This was the third Jenny Lawson book I read this summer. I got a copy from her at her bookstore. Her husband came up to me and asked me if I would like her to sign it and that he would get her for me. I didn’t know much about her at the time, but he insisted and she did come and sign it. She told me it was the first in person signing she had done since Covid (fall of 2021). She was lovely and commented on my momadvice shirt, telling me the authors on the shirt she was friends with. After reading her three books (finally) this summer, I wish I could go back to that moment, but since I can’t, I’m grateful for it.
In this one, she goes even deeper into her experiences and troubles with depression and health insurance, treatments and ups and downs. Some of it felt like journal entries sprinkled with her light-hearted ramblings that made me laugh. I ended up listening to much of it on my trip. I have struggled some with anxiety and depression for much of my life, but not to the extent Jenny writes about in this book. If you don’t have the experience, I feel like this might help people understand the suffering some go through. I do think it is courageous for her to tell her stories and read them out loud - I wonder how painful the process really is - reliving the treatments and such. She mentions her family traveling without her bc of her personal pain, and how some treatments have allowed her to finally travel with her daughter. So grateful for that.
The book also has some illustrations and photos scattered throughout. The audio ends with a chapter that tells how she did the audio in her closet during the 2020 lockdown. Both versions are terrific in different ways. I also love the last chapter about the cover illustration:
“… I’ve never seen a collection of art that more perfectly encapsulates how I felt about my own battle with depression and anxiety and the monsters in my head.
My personal beasties are ugly and ridiculous and they weigh me down and are exhausting to carry around. Sometimes it feels like they are larger than I am…
…
And yet, there is something wonderful in embracing the peculiar and extraordinary monsters that make us unique.” P281, 282
In this one, she goes even deeper into her experiences and troubles with depression and health insurance, treatments and ups and downs. Some of it felt like journal entries sprinkled with her light-hearted ramblings that made me laugh. I ended up listening to much of it on my trip. I have struggled some with anxiety and depression for much of my life, but not to the extent Jenny writes about in this book. If you don’t have the experience, I feel like this might help people understand the suffering some go through. I do think it is courageous for her to tell her stories and read them out loud - I wonder how painful the process really is - reliving the treatments and such. She mentions her family traveling without her bc of her personal pain, and how some treatments have allowed her to finally travel with her daughter. So grateful for that.
The book also has some illustrations and photos scattered throughout. The audio ends with a chapter that tells how she did the audio in her closet during the 2020 lockdown. Both versions are terrific in different ways. I also love the last chapter about the cover illustration:
“… I’ve never seen a collection of art that more perfectly encapsulates how I felt about my own battle with depression and anxiety and the monsters in my head.
My personal beasties are ugly and ridiculous and they weigh me down and are exhausting to carry around. Sometimes it feels like they are larger than I am…
…
And yet, there is something wonderful in embracing the peculiar and extraordinary monsters that make us unique.” P281, 282
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma