Like many advice columnists, the author has compiled a book of their most memorable letters over the years. This is interspersed with brief commentary as to what the author was thinking at the time when writing them. Even though sometimes I'm kinda like, "I dunno on these books, am I getting anything new out of it?" I enjoyed this well enough. I note I'm having Huge Whopping Crisis going on in my life right now, so it was easy to get through.
I also enjoyed how the author did discuss his now-infamous family issues (famously having to disclose that the author's brother is sexually attracted to children and how their dad was enabling the situation, leading to estrangement).. Obviously he has good perspective on the topic. "I can promise that estrangement is possible, that it is survivable, and that other forms of relation and kinship and reciprocity exist on the other side....I can offer a reassurance that it is neither cheaply earned nor lightly given: it can be done, and it can even be good."
I did enjoy the commentaries before letters, such as one on "looking for flimsy excuses to get closer" such as "do you need someone to hold your hand at your friends' gravesides?" and noting that an entire family tries to downplay and excuse setting someone's dress on fire. And, "I have little to say about the pandemic that feels useful, new, or interesting; it's as exhausting to discuss as it has been to contend with." Agreed.
And I enjoyed reading the original letters, with comments such as, "I don't know what you could say to her that's more effective that 'I'm breaking up with you because you wore an R2-D2-themed dress to my sister's wedding." And, "Say the following sentence out loud to yourself: 'I'm thinking about going to a barbecue with a woman who tried to set my mother on fire for talking to a man.' Does that sound like a reasonable sentence?"
Overall I enjoyed this, albeit republishing of advice columns is what it is. I'm going with 3.5 stars.
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