Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See

Thank you to Soho Press for sending me a copy of Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up Too Bright To Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey because it was described as a “brilliant look into mental illness” but I felt like it wasn’t so much about mental health as it was about the antics of a Hollywood exec losing control.

Greyson Todd is a studio exec that represents some of the most famous celebs in Hollywood. But between holding the hands of unstable celebrities, Todd can barely keep it together for his own family. His bipolar disorder leads him to leave his family and make some horribly risky decisions around the world. All roads lead back to the psych ward.

Todd’s money-fuelled antics are sometimes fun to read but I’m not entirely sure what the author was trying to achieve. I’m not even sure that there is a lesson to learn or an overarching theme.

I’m also not sure how accurate of an account this is of bipolar disorder. I felt like the novel glamourized the disease. The ending for Todd is sad but it seemed like he had a lot of fun getting there. But maybe that’s the nature of the illness.

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This Cake Is for the Party

I recently picked up This Cake Is for the Party by Sarah Selecky at Word on the Street because I had heard rave reviews about the author. She’s been compared to Canadian greats like Alice Munro. The thing with Canadian authors is not just that they’re so incredibly depressing – but that fact that they can write so depressingly SO well!

In that respect, Selecky is no different. But her collection of short stories does add a new age twist by focusing on the fears and anxieties of our day. In the short story, Go-Manchura, a self-conscious and anxiety-proned main character (uh, who doesn’t fit that description?), invites her friends to her cottage in an awkward attempt to sell them “Go-Manchura”, a collection of health foods backed by a  pyramid selling scheme.

Having graduated during the recession, I’ve had more than one friend try to recruit/ sell me a pyramid-scheme. And those were the ones that meant well.

I Googled "awkward" and this is what I found

What Selecky does best is show our three biggest fears: losing our stuff, losing our shit and getting cancer. In an effort to prevent all three of these tragedies, we inevitably lose our shit, get cancer and die – thus losing all our stuff.

See what happens when you let me sum up short stories? This Cake Is for the Party is just a quirky book of stories until you realize that you’re scared to death that you might be living them. And that’s what makes it damn good, depressing Canadian lit.

Photo credits: sutkutusu.com