Bittersweet
2022 • 352 pages
Ratings14
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings14
Average rating3.6
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN'T STOP TALKING In her inspiring new masterpiece, the author of the bestselling phenomenon Quiet describes her powerful quest to understand how love, loss and sorrow make us whole - revealing the power of a bittersweet outlook on life. Bittersweetness is a tendency towards states of longing, poignancy and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death - bitter and sweet - are forever paired. If you seek out beauty in your everyday life . . . If you find comfort or inspiration in a rainy day . . . If you react intensely to music, art and nature . . . Then you probably identify with the bittersweet state of mind. With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she employs the same mix of research, storytelling and memoir to explore how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity and connection. Cain shows movingly how a bittersweet state of mind - though we've been blind to its value - is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. It can change the way we live, the way we work and the way we love. If we realize that all humans know - or will know - loss and suffering, we can turn towards one another. At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways.
Reviews with the most likes.
I was so excited to read this book as Quiet was transformative for me. Maybe it was a case of unrealistic expectations, but this book not only didn't resonate much with me (even though I'd certainly describe myself as drawn to bittersweetness; my Spotify Wrapped inevitably skews to “yearning” and “nostalgia”), I didn't find it particularly well-written or intellectually exciting. There were moments I loved, mostly when Cain is reflecting on her own personal experiences, and I thought the final chapter on inherited trauma was well-researched and fascinating. So much of it, though, felt like she was giving credence to scam artists, or at the very least giving way too much benefit of the doubt. In particular, I feel like the sections on “anti-deathers” would have been greatly improved with some healthy skepticism. I'm sad to give this the rating I did, but anything higher would be a stretch.
