The Comfort Book – Matt Haig

After finishing the phenomenal, but incredibly difficult “The Only Plane in the Sky,” I needed a little palate cleansing.

Enter, Matt Haig — the author responsible for one of my favorite reads of 2020 — and his nonfiction, quasi-self-help memoir. Since it had “comfort” in the title, I figured it would be the warm hug needed to help process harrowing 9/11 stories.

Honestly, I don’t know what the point of this book is. Is it bad? No. Is it great? Maybe. Was it for me? Absolutely not.

Narrated by Haig — strike one — “Comfort” at times felt like a long-form Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen” mixed with the maxims for the masses found in Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.”

From outlining things that make him happy — like songs and hummus — to frankly discussing suicidal ideation brought on by severe depression, I give Haig major kudos for honesty and transparency.

But I struggled with the tone and structure of this book. It came across more pop-science than memoir and was just one non-sequitur after another.

This is probably best suited for individuals that have had their own struggles with depression and are looking for additional suggestions on how to survive and thrive. I appreciate the stigma breaking Haig does here — especially for men — but I think his fiction, which also covers similar themes, is more for me.

Still, it was worth listening just for this line: “No physical appearance is worth not eating pasta for.” Amen.

Rating (story): 3/5 stars

Rating (narration): 2/5 stars

Formats: Audiobook (library loan)

Dates read: September 13 - 15, 2021

Multi-tasking: Good to go. I mostly gardened while listening.