Rating: ★★★★★
(SPOILER FREE)
How does one describe a book that puts word to unintelligible thought, creates sense of confusion and describes the realities of all and none? When it comes to books about mental health there are a few classics that really do it for us; that are just enough reality and fiction to balance the scales. Sorrow and Bliss has come to be one of such classics for me.
If you are yet to pick up this book, here’s what you should know: it is a gorgeous book. And I don’t mean just in a literary sense. It is personal. It is true. And best of all it is loud. It speaks wonders to how we find ourselves in this world as objects of emotion. Martha, the main character, is dynamic. She is a reliable story-teller despite being the narrator of her own story. Her changes, her realizations, conclusions, faults and errs in character are comforting in the sense of being realistic. She is nothing special, and nothing makes our stories less special than hers. There is a true beauty in being able to ground a character into being completely and truly human.
Meg Mason has done an outstanding job with this book. As I am aware she didn’t intend for this story to even be published, I am even more at awe at the writing. It is simple to follow, with a contemporary touch in each of the characters (enough to make them authentic but not so that they are fluffy). It is truly a book that can be read in one sitting for it is hard to let go of the story once you are part of it.
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It is towards the end of the book that we begin to realize that perhaps Martha was misdiagnosed. We are also given insight into a new diagnosis that fits her symptoms, her reality and her mind; Martha suffers from '--'. Indeed, this unknown diagnosis is never specified to us. Readers have taken it to Reddit, GoodReads and Twitter to determine what this unknown mental illness could be. Some say Bipolar Disorder, others say she is schizophrenic. Personally, I don't believe the diagnosis is significant in what this story conveys. Yes, the diagnosis lead to her proper medication, prompted her healing with her mother, relieved her of not belonging to any category of society. And yet, the less particular this story is, the less medically undiagnosable - or rather, unnamed - her illness is, the more beauty there is to it.
We for one often forget that having a diagnosis is a privilege. We forget that it is rare to be able to - whether financially, medically, socially - acquire a piece of paper that tells the world that your brain is wired differently. For a lot of the world, it is a silent thing they endure. Martha's life, relationships and goals were all affected by some unknown, disguised darkness, emptiness, overwhelming strangeness that could not be labelled. And her experience through that - before her final diagnosis - is the most significant thing in her slow recovery. Not only did it show us her character, it also showed us what kind of people she was surrounded by - pure souls like Patrick or those who didn't truly understand her with and without her illness.
Dare Disturb the Universe,
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