Elvin James Mensah

I rarely give up on books but I came close over the days that I read “Small Joys”. It is an exhausting look at depression and sadness and maybe the edge of mental illness. It is also an examination of friendship - the kind that you hope and pray to have at some point in your life and if you are lucky you will find that friendship when you are at the lowest point, when you are at the bottom of the pit - the kind of friendship that takes the time to watch, listen and tries to pull you up and out of that all consuming despair.

When you come at life with the belief that it is “something to be bargained with, to be battled with” somehow you just know that it is not going to be uplifting and easy to like or jump onboard. Couple this premise with very brash, outspoken and more outspoken characters in this book, it was just exhausting. But I kept reading and thinking and feeling so badly for this poor boy who has no self-worth - so, so sad. The road is going to be long and arduous - one giant step forward and a million baby steps backwards. Healing, rupturing, rejecting, accepting, realizing that hope can be had, friends can be made, they can care and try to protect and you might start to share and see what it can be to heal and realize you have worth. The words aren’t empty when they are spoken with the love found on the pages of this book.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy.… (more)