He “lives” in my office and scares the cats and occasionally houseguests. Rory is a roadkill raccoon who has been taxidermied into the ecstatic, arms-out, furry cheerleader on the cover of my book. It forces me to step out of my comfort zone and take advantage of the times when I’m not in the middle of a depressive episode or anxiety attack. It’s probably not the most healthy way of dealing with depression, but it works for me. To do everything I could when I was out of a depression to enjoy life, even if it was just from pure spite at the universe. I was mad that life had thrown so much crap at me all at once, so I decided to be furiously happy. I was so tired of being sad and feeling hopeless that I went to my next emotion, and that was anger. I came up with the concept of being “furiously happy” years ago after the death of a friend came on the heels of a depression. This book is about my battle with mental illness, but, more importantl y, it’s about celebrating the battles we win against life and b.s. My first book was about my functionally dysfunctional family, but deep down it was really about accepting your own weirdness. How is your second book different from your first? I battle with depression and anxiety and a host of other disorders, but my strongest weapon is a dark and baffling sense of humor. I am a very strange but entertaining woman who will make you feel better about yourself by comparison.
How would you describe yourself to a potential reader? I usually ask people if they’ve ever wondered why Jesus wasn’t classified as a zombie since technically he came back from the dead, and if they aren’t offended, that’s usually my test to see if they’d like my writing. Irreverent humor for intellectual misfits. How would you describe your books to someone unfamiliar with them? By e-mail, Lawson spoke about her writing, her stuffed raccoon and why it is (sort of) okay to call her crazy.
Her new book, “Furiously Happy” (Flatiron, $26.99), brings together odd stories from her life along with some heart-rending confessions about her struggles with depression, anxiety and chronic pain. The daughter of a professional taxidermist whose family kept (live) chickens in a filing cabinet in the garage, Lawson is also the irreverent voice of the Bloggess, a popular blog where this wife and mom turns her troubles - of which there are many - into a cockeyed comedy of self-deprecation and slapstick. Jenny Lawson’s first book, “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” - a darkly humorous memoir about her hardscrabble upbringing in rural Texas - drew comparisons to David Sedaris and Chelsea Handler and was an instant bestseller.
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