A therapist has therapy, talks about therapy, and imparts deep wisdom.

Introduction:

Sometimes when I pick up a book, it hits me at the exact moment I need it. I have a few books in my personal library where I not only remember the book for what it was, but also for how it made me feel within that brief bubble of time in my life when I read it. While this might be an unfair way to color a critique for a book, adding my own personal experiences into the narrative, I believe with I “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone”, internal reflection is an essential part of the experience.

I’ve personally been going through a really rough stretch. I’ve needed to shift the great pillars of support and relationship in my life to unknown or ungrown spans. Through this time, I’m learning once again to lean on my own strength, tripping, falling, crying, and getting back up and trying again. To have Lori’s company through these last few weeks has been an impossible challenge, deeply refreshing, and revitalizing to my own psyche. She reminded me that someone so strong, so smart, so insightful, is also, so human. Lori shows through her narrative that she can be both a caring, talented therapist, and in the same moment, falling apart at the seams.

We are all human. Trying our best. With whatever may come.

Language (4.5 of 5):

The book reads clean. For a pickup and read here and there type novel of over 400 pages, it can be taken in digestible bite-size chunks. This may be a condition of our collective shortening attention spans, the want for smaller chapters – scene, main point, resolution – type writing. Lori both accomplishes this style well. The lessons step on deeper truths but don’t bog the pace. She is able to continually sprinkle in tidbits of knowledge, kernels of wisdom amid the heartbreak, seriousness, and jokes. To that point, I love Lori’s humor. The way she takes the worst of situations and still finds something light in them. Finds plenty of ways to laugh at herself. We should all do that more often.

Idea (3.5 of 5):

It’s an easy one. Talk about personal trauma. Talk about others’ trauma. Talk about moving through life as a human with emotions and history and fears and vulnerabilities. Talk about your history as to why the situations matter.

Nothing super creative, simply solid. People matter. The story matters.

Characters (5 of 5):

Lori focuses on a few characters and herself to display snippets of the human condition. Of the need for each other, for the need for understanding ourselves, for the need to reflect. Lori’s interactions with her therapist, Wendell, are honest, exposing, raw. He is near to the hero of the book, the wise sage who always knows what to say. Lori herself does not pull her own punches and shows her weaknesses fully on display. This doesn’t take away from her seat as an expert as a therapist. To me, it enhances it. She is not proclaiming that she has all the answers. She is exclaiming that even the best of us need help.

While Lori’s personal story is unveiled, she weaves in a few others dealing with their own struggles. The asshole TV producer. The dying cancer patient. The alcoholic young, easy girl. The late in life depressed elderly woman. Each of their stories is unique, each of their story’s matter. A few are more narratively impactful than others, which is a boon more than a critique. Not every person going into therapy needs death, either of themselves, or of a loved one, or a relationship, to be the driving force for change. Sometimes simply seeing a pattern of self-destruction is enough.

I would have liked to see one more of these ‘middle of the road’ stories. They’re not as flashy, not as dramatic as the others chosen, but would be more relatable. I also understand that Lori probably wrote twice as many stories and had to pare it down to fit in a book. Better to stick with the ones that are too heavy then the ones too light.

Beginning (4 of 5):

Who doesn’t love a book beginning with a crisis? A blindside? Lori dreams of a happy-ever-after with her Boyfriend then, one night, out of the blue, he breaks up with her. Kaboom! It’s gripping. The rage, the anger, the heartbreak. We want to know why! Why did this come to pass? What did she do wrong? What did he do wrong? What could be done better in the future? What can be done to ease the pain of now?

Lori gives us the now, then delves into her past, where she came from, her winding path towards becoming a therapist. Amid it, she introduces us to her patients on display. We are given a five-course meal of her now, of her history, of her unfolding of client 1, 2, and 3 in no particular order. Fifty-minute sessions of therapy boiled down to a few pages, mixed with insights into the human psyche, mixed with humor.

At this point, I couldn’t tell if this was a memoir or a nonfiction novel, both, neither? Whatever it is, It works.

Middle (3.5 of 5):

As we delve deeper into the various narratives, the asshole still being an asshole, the cancer patient getting worse, and better, and worse, the little bits of life unfolding within our nearly seventy-year-old, Lori still reeling from being single again, understanding the steps she took but not understanding the next steps, the narrative slows. We live in a land without resolution, with deepening understanding, yet without the punchline. I know each of these characters chosen have a reason to be in the book. A morale they are waiting to tell. A redemption story. A tragic end. We don’t get there quickly. We, like a good therapist, need to sit with our people, to understand them before the fix comes.

I find the middle to be the weakest part of this book. Not from the perspective of depth, there’s plenty of that, but one of direction. The cresses have passed, the twists have been shown, mostly. Lori keeps some information in hand to share later, primarily her mysterious illness, yet it doesn’t have the same effect. It’s a literary trick that works yet feels somewhat contrived. Was she ignoring this part of her psyche due to not understanding how it connected herself, or for the ah-ha moment? I think it’s a difference with her turning herself into an unreliable narrator. The other similar moments from patients, such as the TV writer unveiling his lost son, are deeply moving.

End (4.5 of 5):

With any book about life there is no real conclusion. We don’t get complete resolution or walking off into the sunset hand-in-hand. Lori has hope to find companionship but hasn’t found it yet. Her illness is still undiscovered. The TV writer can move on from burying his past, but still must live with it every day. Our cancer patient is gone, but she leaves behind so many individuals, impacted by her life, by her choices. The addicted young girl finds balance, yet we don’t know if she holds onto it. It is only the elderly woman who finds what she is looking for. She gets her happiness.

Wendell and Lori’s time comes to an end. She says her goodbye, which is really a see you later.

Summary (4 of 5):

Honest, moving, heartwarming. A solid book. “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” reminds me we are all going through our own path in life. We are all struggling. We are all thriving. People will come and people will go. Our stories aren’t over unless we want them to be. Most of all, we need others’ help. We cannot do this thing called life alone. Others change us. We change others. Lori wrote a book and threw it into the abyss of culture and her words of wisdom will stick with me for years to come.

Thank you Lori.