A review by ashalucienne
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

5.0

I've not read many novels in the past few months and this was the first I picked up this summer that I really got into. From the beginning I was rooting for Martha, not because she was easy to root for, but for her difficulty and obstinance. I liked her unlikeable personality at the beginning, similar to the opinions of other characters in the book (Patrick, Ingrid, etc), though got tired of her mistakes and anger the more I read. It was hard to empathize with someone who I felt kept making the wrong decisions. I became angry at Martha's anger, disheartened by Martha's sadness, in a way I usually don't by the novels about mentally ill women that I frequently read.

I tend to like sad endings in this niche of mentally ill women novels: a death, a irreconcilable realization, an ending. But this (relatively) hopeful ending was needed. For 41 years, Martha struggled in a way I wish on no one and perhaps one more chance at introspection was all she truly needed.

The ending reminded me of Writers & Lovers by Lily King. Though most of the book is now a distant memory (I read it last year and remember thinking it was quite few pages too long), I remember how happy the positive ending made me feel. In the midst of all these depressing novels, maybe there is room for an ending that leaves you with fewer tears and a bittersweet smile. Despite her relational failures and inadequacies, Martha was deeply loved by many people in her life and it only took her 330 pages to realize that fact.