By Saturday lunchtime, the WORD Christchurch Festival was in full flow. A low-lying hum of excitement was palpable around the main venues for the festival; people and books everywhere. This particular event had been on my must-attend since the programme was released. Sorrow and Bliss has been one of my favourite books from the last few years (even revisiting it for a second time), so I knew seeing the author Meg Mason in conversation with Noelle McCarthy was not to be missed.
Sorrow and Bliss: the smash hit
Right off the bat the picture of Olivia Wilde reading Sorrow and Bliss with Harry Styles in the background (“bless their beautiful, brief love affair!”) was mentioned, which lead to how Sorrow and Bliss has changed Mason’s life. Due to the pandemic, the publication dates for it kept getting pushed, so it happened very slowly. There was the occasional post from an influencer, but there was no sense that it was going to be an instant bestseller. And because of the pandemic and travelling was out of the question, there were no tours or book signings. Then the paperback was released, and suddenly it hit the U.K. and took off. By then restrictions had lifted and Mason was able to fly over there for the tours and book signings that had been lacking before. When questioned if she was prepared for what was to come, Mason assured them that she was. But what she thought she knew changed pretty quickly. Mason could only liken it to thinking you were going to a low-key, casual barbeque, and walking into your wedding. Clearly, this book had resonated with readers. In a pretty huge way.
The unreliable narrator
At the age of 17 Martha, the main character and narrator of the book, has a little explosion in her brain. It is only years later that she realises what it was, and how it affected not only her but her family and friends in the years to come. McCarthy mentioned that Martha’s voice is distinctly unique, and wondered if she focused on finding the right rhythm or cadence. Mason’s first manuscript was in third person, and she realised that if she were to write about mental illness it needed to be written in first person instead; narrated from the character experiencing it first-hand. Martha can talk about mental illness differently. Once Mason realised that, it just wrote itself. With a side note of mentioning that she hates it when writers say that.
While Mason didn’t have set rules, there were “guidelines, as it were.” She just wrote what happened, straightforward and to the point. She explained the reader doesn’t need her to describe what a tree branch scratching against a window sounds like. The novel is grim in places. But it can just be borne because it’s plain and readable. Effective!
People have mentioned they feel that Martha is awful, and would compare her to her sister Ingrid (the ‘funny’ one). But Mason explained Martha is an untrustworthy narrator. She is only telling us the worst things. She feels a lot of shame about herself, and can only give the reader what she has done. The grim and awful things. She’s not proud of any of it. Mason did a word search in the manuscript for ‘sorry’ and differently worded apologies. Out of a 350-page book, there were roughly a staggering 180. The book is her apology letter.
Show or tell and writing about mental illness
McCarthy praised how well Mason wrote about England and ‘Englishness’. Lucozade, for example. Was this the key? Mason talked about making things smaller and smaller, until you break it down to something like Lucozade; “those tiny flourishes.” Show and tell, show or tell. The Lucozade shows rather than tells.
The way Martha’s mental illness is presented in the book is also unique. It is not named, not labelled. Originally writing the book was Mason’s own rehab project (after an attempt at another novel ended in the rubbish bin, literally). She didn’t think it would see the light of day. As the draft progressed, the symptoms of the illness would get muddled up, some were even taken away, and she progressed to the moment of authenticity and representation being key. She wanted to do this, representing the illness and everything that comes with it, correctly. If it were one specific mental illness, the book would become about that. But her story was not about the illness.
Forgiveness and family
Part of Martha’s journey is forgiving the people in her life that knew (or didn’t) about the illness, and did not help. A deeply moving part, McCarthy notes. Mason was interested in people’s roles within a family. Martha’s role was to be a nightmare. Ingrid’s, to be funny. Martha was there to ruin Christmas, and her family members had a vested interest in this, not acknowledging their own contribution to its downfall. Through the book, Mason was able to explore how people in the family experience this, people’s set roles. Usually everyone is suffering; nobody wins. And along these lines, it’s so easy to get caught up in one’s own experience of something, like a mental illness, forgetting how it affects others around us. As Martha realises late in the book, she didn’t ask Patrick what it was like for him.
To end: Some practical advice from Meg Mason
- You should never give someone a gratitude journal
- Don’t wear a distinctive shirt for your headshot (unless you want it to be commented on every time you wear it afterwards)
- As a woman, don’t put your success down to good luck
- Don’t comment that her book is more “sorrow than bliss”
“I never said it was 50/50”
Teresa
Fendalton Library
Find out more
- WORD Christchurch website and 2023 programme
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- Our WORD Christchurch 2023 page
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