Book Review: It Sucked and Then I Cried

I got turned on to Dooce.com a few months ago, and have enjoyed casually reading through this blog as decent work-procrastination fodder. Heather’s sense of humor is similar to mine, and I have to appreciate anyone who describes themselves thusly:

I grew up in a small suburb of Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated valedictorian of Bartlett High School in 1993. The reason I am telling you about the valedictorian part is because being able to say, "I was the valedictorian" is the only privilege I ever got in life from achieving that goal. No one ever hired me because I was valedictorian. The lesson to be learned from this is: AIM LOW. Save yourself the time.

My parents raised me Mormon, and I grew up believing that the Mormon Church was true. In fact, I never had a cup of coffee until I was 23 years old. I had pre-marital sex for the first time at age 22, but BY GOD I waited an extra year for the coffee. There had better be a special place in heaven for me.

I’d read enough entries from her site to be reasonably interested in her book: “It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had A Baby, A Breakdown, and A Much Needed Margarita.” First off: Great title. Secondly, I’m in that phase in life where the majority of my good friends are going through the transition from “non-parent” to “parent”, so the topic is both timely and interesting to me.

It’s… I mean, it’s an ok book. As are most books written by bloggers, it’s more a compilation of blog entries loosely strung together; I wish the editor had been more vigorous in forcing a bridge between ideas so it felt like I was reading the next “chapter”, not the next “entry.” It’s well written, of course; I was engaged by what I was reading, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the story wasn’t really being told. I never got the sense of a timeline or progress forward (actually, the beginning of the book is better about general narrative than the middle / end.) It’s almost as if the complete and total mental breakdown was just too hard to relive, so instead there was a straight cut and paste of blog entries in the hopes that the gist of what was happening would come through. Which: hey man, I Get It, but if that’s the case…maybe wait to put out the book until you really CAN tell the story?

I’m thrilled that more and more women are discussing post partum depression, or even depression at all. I don’t think there’s anything shameful in Heather’s three day stay in a mental hospital and I wish more people would acknowledge depression as a Real Thing that requires Real Treatment; any book that comes out that serves to lessen any stigma to the disease is a good thing. But this book, despite it’s great title, didn’t quite hit the mark for me. (I know, I know: “it’s not the critic that counts…”) Your better bet would be to check out the blog and read the back entries. Equally as entertaining and 100% freer.