We are privy to the thoughts in Martha’s head and feel her desperation as her illness worsens. It allows freedom to explore the wider issues of mental health and illness without pigeon holing the illness to one particular diagnosis. This is never actually named, which I think was a brave but correct decision by Mason. Some are wonderful, others less so, but at the centre of it all is Martha and her illness. This is an observant character driven novel of great depth, providing a myriad of characters who come in and out of Martha’s life and leave an impression upon it. It felt odd to laugh at a book about mental illness, but I think what Mason did really well was show that life is made up of many dispirit parts, and humour, at the darkest times is often needed. It is hard to read at times yes, but there is a lot of dark, wry humour, particularly between Martha and Ingrid who send each other text messages which basically comprise of gifs and emojis to convey how they feel. This is a book about depression, but it isn’t depressing. She shows us her and Ingrid’s childhoods and their adulthoods, interspersing witty asides from the present day. What follows is a book which leaps from the past to the present, narrated by Martha. Brought into the heart of this family, he meets Martha, admiring her from afar and falling in love with her. Patrick’s father lives in Singapore and he has been left at boarding school to fend for himself. It is at one of these Christmases when Martha’s cousin brings a friend home with him for Christmas. An affluent couple with three children, they host Christmas every year and ensure there is a big family meal and gifts, even whilst Martha’s mother shoots barbed comments at Winsome, her sister, and drinks herself into oblivion amongst the discarded wrapping paper. Their only form stability comes from both their relationship, which is tight-knit and almost impenetrable, and their aunt and uncle, Winsome and Rowland. Martha and her sister, Ingrid were often left to their own devices, especially when their parents went through one of their regular separations and their father, the one who ensured they were clothed and fed, left the family home. She is from a bohemian family an artist mother whose sculptures made from reclaimed items absorb all of her time and a poet father who had a successful book many years earlier and has been trying, and failing to write a follow up ever since. At the heart of the novel is Martha, a 40 year old woman who has suffered with mental illness since “a bomb went off” in her brain at aged 17. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is a gorgeous novel about family, love and mental illness.

Goodreads sorrow and bliss