Sad Janet
Lucie Britsch, 2020
Penguin Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780593086520
Summary
Janet works at a rundown dog shelter in the woods. She wears black, loves the Smiths, and can’t wait to get rid of her passive-aggressive boyfriend. Her brain is full of anxiety, like "one of those closets you never want to open because everything will fall out and crush you."
She has a meddlesome family, eccentric coworkers, one old friend who’s left her for Ibiza, and one new friend who’s really just a neighbor she sees in the hallway. Most of all, Janet has her sadness—a comfortable cloak she uses to insulate herself from the oppressions of the wider world.
That is, until one fateful summer when word spreads about a new pill that offers even cynics like her a short-term taste of happiness… just long enough to make it through the holidays without wanting to stab someone with a candy cane.
When her family stages an intervention, her boyfriend leaves, and the prospect of making it through Christmas alone seems like too much, Janet decides to give them what they want. What follows is life-changing for all concerned—in ways no one quite expects.
Hilarious, bitterly wise, and surprisingly warm, Sad Janet is the depression comedy you never knew you needed. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Lucie Britsch's writing has appeared in Catapult Story, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Split Lip Magazine, and The Sun (UK), and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in England, and Sad Janet is her first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A gentle, yet precise probe into the nature of melancholia.… Sad Janet is a strangely exuberant meditation on sadness; Britsch articulates the conflicting comforts and pains of depression in a distinctively memorable, wise way.
Refinery29
[A] darkly comic debut, a deadpan, abrasive narrator muses on her depression.… Janet has a gift for homing in on her own emotional state and everyone else’s, which Britsch renders in rueful, knowing prose…. [T]his monologue on unhappiness is undeniably infectious.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) The narrative voice of Janet in Britsch’s debut novel is a skin-tingling combination of new and necessary…. This book and this character are radical, and readers are likely to feel a relief at reading the thoughts they’ve had but not spoken.
Booklist
[A] darkly humorous debut… [and] sardonic portrayal of self-improvement…. However, by its end, it becomes a sort of echo chamber unto itself, full of cynicism, angst, existential ennui, and no solution. Perhaps that is life. A misanthropic tale goes awry.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help discuss SAD JANET … then take off on your own:
1. Does Janet's sadness resonate with you? If so, in what way? If not, do you lose patience with her? Is she wallowing in her depression … or trapped?
2. Talk about Janet's counter-cultural desires: her wish not to have a boyfriend, own a house, or have children. Why does she hold these seemingly contrarian aspirations?
3. How would you describe the other characters in Lucie Britsch's novel: Janet's boyfriend and her family?
4. Janet tells us, "Love is like gluten," and that she "should have told the doctor. I can't process it properly." Funny! But what does she mean?
5. Talk about the dogs. What role do they play in Janet's life? Who or what do they stand in for, both the role they play in Janet's life, as well as the symbolic role in the novel itself?
6. What are Janet's perceptions—the pros and cons—of taking the medication. Why did she agree to take the pills?
7. Is this a "self-improvement" novel? Or a parody of one?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)