Title: Do I Feel Better Yet?*
Author: Madeleine Trebenski
Rating: 3.75 stars / 5 stars
Favorite Quote: “All I can say is it’s very hard to be in my brain sometimes.” Trebenski, Madeleine. Do I Feel Better Yet?. Chronicle Books, 2022.
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Review: Thank you to the publisher, Chronicle Books, and the NetGalley platform for the free e-ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, this book is an absolute delight. Trebenski tackles a myriad of issues facing millennial women as they deal with work woes, aging, mental health concerns, and health and body standards. Trebenski does so with acerbic wit, and often is at her best when her humor is used to show a pervasive, often anxiety-causing concern.
The structure of this book is successful as well. It’s well organized, tackling a variety of topics in a concise manner, often beginning each section with a summary of what the issue is before bleeding into a more abstract, imaginative reflection on how the issue might be addressed. (I found the Pro/Con list about procreation to be particularly titillating, as someone who is child-free by choice but also at the peak of when society expects me to procreate).
Ultimately, the biggest issue for this book is that it could honestly have been shorter. Even though the portions of the essays that verge into the absurd and hilarious are imaginative and still manage to capture the heart of the issues Trebenski is addressing, sometimes they dragged on longer than necessary. Trebenski is clearly creative and employs humor (often dark humor) effectively in a social critique. But at times, these essays seemed to be written (or at least prolonged) with humor for humor’s sake, rather than to make the book as compulsively readable as it might otherwise be. There were definitely moments I put it down because I got a bit bored, and once I was able to power through to the next section, I was once again delighted, but if those sections had been cut shorter, that sense of boredom likely would have never occurred.
About that Quote: This book is much more insightful than it might seem at first glance. (For instance, read the meditation for surviving as a woman if you want to be equal parts amused and enraged.) I think this quote, in particular, captures that moment. Trebenski is funny. There is absolutely no doubt about that. But she’s also someone who has experienced anxiety, loneliness, fear, and uncertainty. And this quote demonstrates what it feels like to cope with those experiences.
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