Blogging about Books: Fury

I’m happy to say that I’ve already read two books this year and I have two more on the go (my enthusiasm has waned after the initial “YAY KOBO YAAAAY!!” but I’m still reading way more than I did before!). I’m going to try to review all of the books I read, this year at least, right here on the blog — I kind of feel like I’m back in Grade 3 trying to remember how to write a book report, however, so bear with me.

Fury: A Memoir by Koren Zailckas

The first book I read in 2013 was one that has been on my wishlist for a while. When I was in college, I read Koren Zailckas’s Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood and I really loved the author’s style. She writes in a really personal way, to the point that when I reviewed Smashed on Goodreads I wrote, “It hurts a bit to empathize with her.”

The whole story:
Fury is a book about anger, and Zailckas’s second book. It started out as more of a researched, factual look at anger across the globe, how it affects people and how it is handled, but it became clear, quite quickly, that Zailckas was having a hard time writing about anger because she, herself, was angry. With that realization, the book goes down the wormhole of her personal anger, what caused it, and how it was wrecking her life.

I have to say I wasn’t really surprised at this turn, given how Smashed was such an introspective, deep look at the author herself. But I had envisioned the book being about Zailckas’s uncontrollable rage, teeming frustration and all of that anger-bubbling-at-the-surface stuff, given how her first book dealt with another uncontrollable problem. I was surprised, then, when the book went down the path of dealing with repressed anger, the kind of anger the author was biting back, unwilling to deal with the source.

Of course, it all blows open partway through the book, which is where I found myself really wanting to know how it would all turn out. Much like Smashed, Fury was an easy book in which I could invest myself — I wanted there to be a happy ending again. Sometimes, though, it almost felt too personal, like I was awkwardly standing by while two people I knew were fighting in public.

While I think Smashed was a tighter memoir with a more personal premise for a lot of people, I still enjoyed Fury and I think the author has a great knack for memoir writing. And, though Fury turned out as a memoir, there was still interesting research and facts disbursed throughout. Zailckas didn’t give up on the original book entirely, she weaved it into the story that had to be told.

In one sentence:
A book about anger, but also redemption, loss, growing up and moving on — and it’s cheaper than therapy.

Recommended for:
Women, mothers, anyone who likes memoirs, people who enjoyed Smashed, angry people, people who are afraid to be angry.

Rating:

You can buy Fury: A Memoir here. [Affiliate link]