Gilda is a 26-year old depressed woman. Her life is a mess, there is a pile of dirty dishes in her apartment, everything is half working, so her relationship with her girlfriend and she ruminates a lot about death and human-caused hazards. Regularly suffering from anxiety episodes and minor injuries, she is a known person at the ER. Gilda is aware there is something wrong with her, but she does not find a way to fix it herself or to stop herself from ruminating. When she finds a leaflet about free therapy session at a local church, she decides to take the step of getting help. Instead she encounters a well-intentioned parishioner who is convinced, she here for the job as secretary. The first step towards a cascade of misunderstandings has been made. She is unable to correct him. She neither tells him she is an atheist nor that she is gay. Being unable to stand her ground and correct people’s assumptions, she goes to a large extent to choose the way of least resistance.
The novel and writing style catch the human nature in a nearly uncanny manner. The circumstances emerging from the misunderstandings are funny, at the same time show how difficult it is to live for a person suffering from depression. It will take a lot of those situations, of going for the way of least resistance, until she finds herself at a point where she cannot escape and confront her thoughts. There is a good end to the novel, but I won’t spoil it, because it’s definitely a beautiful book to read.
Austin’s writing is immaculate, I enjoyed it so much that I preordered her next novel, coming out in January 2024.
