Book Review - Sorrow And Bliss by Meg Mason

 Hello, 

I realise I haven't written on here for almost 3 years, I have written book reviews but quickly forgot about this little blog that I created in 2021 in the spur-of-a-moment, completely dedicated to books. So I thought... I would jolly well use it. April was a month of writing, attempts at picture-books and entries into multiple different creative writing and poetry competitions, meant I didn't have the extra energy to read. This status-quo has now changed and reading is firmly back on the agenda for the time-being. This reading includes books I have read and then forgotten about and re-read. The good part of having a memory like mine - that doesn't remember intricate details about plot and storyline but remembers intrinsically if I loved a book or if it was 'okay' - is that I can re-read a book a year later and see it with fresh eyes. 

I think even if you have a much better memory than me and books stay with you, re-reading is something worth while as you will always take away more from a book than you did on your first read. Sorrow And Bliss is a re-read for me (possibly even my third read - I can't quite remember) and boy, is it good. 

It follows the life of Martha Friel, who the day after finishing her A Levels, describes an explosion going off in her brain. The book is her from teenager to adulthood, living life with an undiagnosed mental illness - and how this effects not just everyone around her, but her perception of herself. It skews her dreams, her self-imposed limits, her identity. When at last she is diagnosed with an unknown disease, she pieces together how this perception has impacted her and her relationships for most of her life. 

Whilst the book sounds quite serious, Mason tells Martha's story in a candid and sensitive way, whilst remaining sharply witty and intelligent in observing society with all its' prejudices and double-standards. 

I laughed with this book and I cried. It is beautifully written and very poignant.