REVIEW: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

In the flood of incredible new novels from big name authors arriving throughout September, it’s possible that you might just miss one of the best books of the month. That book is Sorrow and Bliss, a beautifully bold novel about life, love and the many ways in which unhappiness can manifest in one woman’s mind by author Meg Mason.

Meg Mason

Shortly after we first meet Martha, the reluctant heroine of Sorrow and Bliss, we witness her crossing a room to stop her husband, Patrick, from giving a speech at her fortieth birthday party. It’s an absolutely heartless thing to do and it’s the kind of thing that might instantly turn a reader away from this book, but it would be a mistake to stop reading there. This act of casual cruelty tells us a little about who Martha is but it is not, of course, the whole story. Much of the novel is given over to retracing Martha and Patrick’s steps up until that exquisite moment of breakdown – their meeting as teenagers (Martha coolly indifferent, Patrick immediately love-stricken), the years of curious flirting and then a brief period of infatuation, followed by a marriage weighed down by its own inevitability. But mostly, this is a story about Martha herself.

Martha was born the youngest of two daughters to Celia and Fergus Russell, a melodramatic sculptor and a poet hilariously labelled a ‘male Sylvia Plath’. She lived out her childhood in a ramshackle house that was also home to many raucous parties of the London art scene. The fairytale-like chaos of such a bohemian upbringing manifests itself in Martha’s dry humour, intelligence, and somewhat pessimistic worldview. But Martha is also a woman struggling with mental illness, one that sends her spiralling into episodes of despair and that stops her from fully understanding what it is that she wants from her life. By the time Martha finally gets a proper diagnosis, it might be far too late to salvage anything from the wreckage she has made of her life and marriage.

If this book sounds depressing, I should probably mention that it’s also very funny. Like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, to whose work this book will inevitably (but fairly) be compared, Meg Mason has an innate understanding of the comic power of sadness and how humour can be used to mask one’s reality. It finds its form in Martha but also in the novel’s many other richly-drawn characters, from her snobbish aunt Winsome to her kind but abstracted father. This fictional family and all of their petty, furious and loving interactions felt instantly real to me, especially Ingrid, Martha’s sister with whom she shares a fierce and often alienating intimacy. Love, motherhood, and sisterhood are irrevocably intertwined in this novel, which treats all three subjects with a frankness that feels familiar and authentic.

With Martha’s journey to find some semblance of peace as its anchor, Sorrow and Bliss shines as a piece of fiction that makes explicit all of the joys and afflictions of 21st century life. It isn’t always an easy novel to read, but it’s one that will reward you with every page.

—Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (HarperCollins Australia) is out now.

Sorrow and Bliss

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Meg Mason

This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going.

Martha told Patrick before they got married that she didn't want to have children. He said he didn't mind either way because he has loved her since he was fourteen and making her happy is all that matters, although he does not seem able to do it. By the time Martha finds out what is wrong...

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Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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