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A review by emilyinherhead
What If This Were Enough? by Heather Havrilesky
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Heather Havrilesky is one of those authors who just gets it. I’ve long admired her writing, whether in her 2010 memoir, Disaster Preparedness (all about her upbringing in my hometown of Durham, NC), or in her Ask Polly advice column. She’s tough and opinionated but she wants the best for you.
The essays in this collection trend a little more toward the cultural criticism end of the spectrum, but that tough-love soul is still there. Havrilesky writes around politics, capitalism, social media, the foodie movement, shows like Mad Men and Entourage, romance in long-term relationships, and more, all through the lens of figuring out how we might learn to accept ourselves and our lives for what they are. We don’t need more, we just need to pay more attention and be more present in the existence we already have.
There is also a short and surprisingly poignant ode to Havrilesky’s mother’s house toward the end of the book, which I really loved.
It was a little strange reading a book like this in 2023 that was published back in 2018, only five years ago in clock time but a lifetime in lived experience. Havrilesky’s words reach forward from a pre-pandemic, mid-Trump presidency era, when things were already bad in many ways and, unbeknownst to us, about to get even worse. But there is still a lot of valuable and still applicable work here, and many quotes to write down and come back to.
The essays in this collection trend a little more toward the cultural criticism end of the spectrum, but that tough-love soul is still there. Havrilesky writes around politics, capitalism, social media, the foodie movement, shows like Mad Men and Entourage, romance in long-term relationships, and more, all through the lens of figuring out how we might learn to accept ourselves and our lives for what they are. We don’t need more, we just need to pay more attention and be more present in the existence we already have.
There is also a short and surprisingly poignant ode to Havrilesky’s mother’s house toward the end of the book, which I really loved.
It was a little strange reading a book like this in 2023 that was published back in 2018, only five years ago in clock time but a lifetime in lived experience. Havrilesky’s words reach forward from a pre-pandemic, mid-Trump presidency era, when things were already bad in many ways and, unbeknownst to us, about to get even worse. But there is still a lot of valuable and still applicable work here, and many quotes to write down and come back to.