Sorrow and Bliss: A Novel

Wasn't convinced at first but it slowly grew on me. Had a positive ending and good characters. Good narration.

Enjoyed this book a lot. Humor and astute social observation helps us stick with this unlikable character. I found her journey compelling and relatable.

The central character is narcissistic with no redeeming features, who achieves little . She barely works and expects everyone to cater to her needs, while she makes remarks, sulks, stays in bed and throws things. It's quite depressing. The sister is little more than a vehicle for one-liners, some of which are funny. The mental illness that the central character suffers from is called "x". It's not a real illness, we learn in a footnote at the end. ... A disappointing lack of research - could have explored the real issues instead of using an expedient short cut.

The humor and humanity in this novel is brilliant. One of those novels that I didn’t want to end.

Absolutely loved it. Brilliant book would recommend. I did not like the reader of the audiobook acting out the scenes with shouting. I'm listening with my sleeping baby and the supposed to be narrator starts shouting. I wish they would just narrate the book and not try and act it out.

The central character is horrible and the continual non-naming of the condition she has is beyond irritating. I only finished it because I always finish books I start. The husband was a mug to stay with her.

Liked it, a miserable read ngl, but all in all was good.

Written beautifully. Captured those moments of self reflection, detachment and desperate search to project blame and deny responsibility. I loved witnessing her mend herself and relationships.

This was one of my favorite books of all time. The main character is so well developed and the writing is real, deep and witty. I dind't have great expectations with this story, but it was such a blast and I'm so glad that I've got the chance to read it

More like 3,5 stars. Its just main characters were so annoying

Not sure can I say why I loved it, I just did.
Sorry I realise this isn’t a very helpful review ?

When you get to chapter 35 the recording goes wrong. First it keeps cutting out the voice and then it jumps pages, so you will have to read the last few chapters from the book. I liked the writer, but the story? Well it reads more like a memoir. It’s always about the character and her illness and no more.

This book is so amazing and relatable. Loved every piece of it.

Had me crying multiple times it was serious ... I'm gonna miss everyone and their fuck-ups so badly and it is a lot more meticulously written than it seems. Rereading some bits and the scene where a young Martha realises that she has had Winsome all wrong was painful because it foreshadows her adulthood - sometimes we (un)intentionally put down the people we love because we need them to be worse than how we feel. But in so doing we also fail to see ourselves as full and whole human beings with choices, however difficult they may be to make. I think that the novel also navigates the complicated relationship between disability, pain, and identity in a sobering and incredibly compassionate way. Borrowed from the library but I might get a copy.

— "I have been loved every day of my adult life. I have been unbearable but I have never been unloved. I have felt alone but I have never been alone and I've been forgiven for the unforgivable things I have done."

— "My perception of Winsome belonged to my mother—I thought of her as old, punctilious, someone without an interior life or worthwhile passions. That was the first time I saw her for myself. Winsome was an adult, someone who took care, who loved order and beauty and labored to create it as a gift to other people."

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize 2022

This was not one of the books I chose to read at the Women's Prize longlist stage, and I think it is one of the books that will divide readers most. The first half of the book fell flat for me, as the narrator Martha describes her young adulthood in terms that attempt to be funny, but the humour feels forced and unsubtle to me, and Martha is very difficult to like. There is some redemption in the second half, when Martha has her mental condition diagnosed and treated, and comes to terms with her family and her younger self, but not enough for me to go higher than a three star rating. One thing that did impress me is how well Mason carries off the British setting, given how little time she has spent in the country - there were a few slightly false notes but in the circumstances I would have expected many more.

In Meg Mason's "Sorrow and Bliss," Martha Russell, who narrates, has had serious psychological problems since she was seventeen. After she completes her studies, she applies for jobs that are, for the most part, menial and unchallenging. Martha loves her kindly dad, Fergus, but she is embarrassed by her mother, Celia, an alcoholic who has never given her daughters, Martha and Ingrid, the nurturing that they needed. When Martha meets Jonathan, a handsome and successful bachelor, she is swept off her feet. Unfortunately, she does not realize that, until she achieves emotional stability, she will never be able to sustain a long-term relationship with any man.

This is a tragicomedy in which humorous scenes are followed by heartbreaking passages in which Martha, an unreliable narrator if ever there was one, experiences meltdowns that she cannot control. She is a lost soul whom we pity, but she also arouses feelings of profound exasperation. She flits around from doctor to doctor, takes pills, stops taking pills, and when things are particularly bad, spends days in bed, unable to eat, bathe, or communicate meaningfully with friends and family.

Rather than giving Martha a diagnosis, Mason tells us in "a note on the text" that "the portrayal of treatment, medication, and doctors' advice is wholly fictional." This a mistake, since specifying what ails Martha would lend believability to the story. Particularly far-fetched is Martha's second marriage to a saintly man, a physician who puts up with her rages and despondency for years. A more appealing character is Martha's younger sister, Ingrid, a warm and loving wife and mother. Ingrid and Martha's wealthy Aunt Winsome is also good-hearted—"an adult, someone who took care, who loved order and beauty." She does her best to lift her nieces' spirits and lend a hand to the impoverished Celia and Fergus. Ultimately, however, in "Sorrow and Bliss," Meg Mason falls short in her attempt to construct a coherent and satisfying plot incorporating romance, humor, and an exploration of the anguish of mental illness.

I didn’t know a book could be both devastating and hopeful at once, but apparently it can.

I wanted to like this, but I didn't. I found it claustrophobic and depressing.

Protagonist Martha suffers from a (deliberately unnamed) mental illness. As the story opens, she is enduring her fortieth birthday party, and arguing with her husband. The storyline then shifts back to Martha’s past, onset of her mental issues, a failed first marriage, and details about her parents, sister, and current husband. It picks up where we came in (at the party) and goes forward into the next year.

The story is told in first person by Martha so the reader must be prepared to be in the head of an unreliable and often unpleasant narrator. During the early part of her illness, she is misdiagnosed and treated with ineffective medications. The point seems to be how poorly mental illness is sometimes handled, and the damaging ramifications. Other themes are love, family, loneliness, and self-accountability.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is compelling in that I ignored other books to focus on this one. I very much enjoyed the protagonist’s relationship with her sister and her sister’s large family. But I would not recommend it to anyone who prefers a likeable main character. I think the reader needs to be in a good place mentally before embarking on this one (e.g., not suffering from depression). I am uncomfortable with the way mental health and mental health professionals are portrayed. The author admits that she is unfamiliar with this field, and it shows.

This book showed up on a best of list and I decided that it seemed interesting so I tried it and I was very impressed. Mason is an excellent writer and the book that deals with mental illness is full of humor but deals well with a serious subject. The book takes place in London and Oxford. We meet Martha a 40 year old married woman with no children just as her husband Patrick is leaving her. From there we are told Martha's story through her first person narrative. I always have a slight problem with books in the first person because I can never trust their assessment of the other characters in the book but in this case it is best told this way. Martha has been dealing with depression and long episodes of it since she was 17 but over the years she has gone from doctor to doctor and medicine to medicine with no firm diagnosis or cure. Along the way we meet the people in her life including her husband Patrick and her sister Ingrid. Each character brings a unique voice to the book and Martha's exchanges with her sister are where most of the humor comes from. This is a serious book but one that deals with so many issues of family relationships which are always difficult but even more so given Martha's mental illness. This was an excellent book and at 330 pages it was just the right length. For anyone who has ever struggled with mental illness or has a close relationship with someone in this situation, this book is a must read.

Martha has a mental illness - hereditary that effects her ability to function. This is not a known mental illness. However, what is interesting is the reaction others have to her illness and how she reacts. Interesting book. Not an easy read but it stays with you.

I felt a little disorientated by this book and the lack of discussion about the main character's diagnosis of her mental illness. At times, although a good read, it felt frivolous to be so casual about the suffering to both Martha and Patrick.

I got this kindle book from my library because of the Ann Patchett blurb on the cover. Patchett wanted to send it to everybody she knows. I'm just glad she didn't send it to me. Some of the reviews said how funny it was. I never laughed. The narrator is a screwed up woman with zero self-awareness, who makes life miserable for the people who (unaccountably) love her. The only part that really grabbed me were the sessions with the therapist who finally diagnosed her, and how irritating is this? Her illness was only referred to as "_____"

What can be the point of that? And the disclaimer at the end: the symptoms "are not consistent with a genuine mental illness." So what is the point of making it all up?

One extra half star because at least it was fairly well-written

Funny and very sad. It felt real.

I particularly enjoyed Ingrid's sense of humour, and the character of Patrick.