To go to therapy with "the secret illusion and hope of improving" and feel ripped off

The book we are reviewing here was to be titled There must be a better way to do this, that the author, the comedian Maria Rovira (Barcelona, 1990), he says it is a mantra that accompanies him. But that title fell in favor of Garland, which according to the dictionary of the Institute of Catalan Studies is a chain of flowers, of braided foliage, that is hung as an ornament; and whoever says flowers, says banners or whatever it is. It is based on this idea of a string of memories and thoughts that we must read this book, which has the subtitle 'Words, losses and other celebrations'.

In her work as a stand-up comedian and contributor to comedy shows under the artistic name of Oye Sherman, Rovira has a serious demeanor and doesn't play at permanent hilarity, but rather doses out jokes and flashes of wit. We don't find here, therefore, laughter on every page, but rather a humorous substratum that springs forth in small brushstrokes and is aided by the blessed footnotes, where we find complementary information of the style: “How Japanese the word sounds notary, right?” or “What a crybaby”.

Master this braid of autobiographical content, that is, the account of your existence viewed with due humorous distance: "I went to therapy with the secret illusion and hope of improving, of becoming someone else, someone who would deserve the love and consideration of others and oneself, the egg and the hen. And when you go, they tell you: 'No, no, you have to love yourself as you are.' What a scam. Give me my money back".

Thus, we know that as a child she did not learn to do a handstand or to tell the time correctly. We witness family scenes, we accompany her to the beautician and to the class ofaqua gym, with the imagination within the graphic novel by Marina Sáez. We share with her the death of her father and the concerns typical of one's thirties, which she portrays midway through Dante's famous line –in the middle of the journey– and another from a movie byAgnès Varda, on a character says: “We have already shat half of our shit”. Garland serves us to connect better with a generation that is perhaps a bit stigmatized, but which is nevertheless our hope for the future.

Love words

As a child, the author wanted to be a writer and, as a good millennial, she was made to read a story in primary school that wouldn't need to be read and which she quotes here. Although Sagarra's Private Life, Patti Smith's excellent memoirs, Vivian Gornick's Fierce Attachments, and even J.D. Salinger. also appear. Those stories read when she was a child, although dispensable, instilled in her the desire to tell stories and the love for words, which is one of her characteristic traits.

Her linguistic interests are often mentioned in the text, appearing recurrently throughout and forming her personal hallmark. We find, among others, synonyms for nyanyo or the etymology of the word alopecia. At the end, an appendix offers us words she likes and others that catch her attention, either because they seem incorrect but are not, or because they could exist but do not. I loved the chapter on "intrusive thoughts" and I can highlight some brilliant phrases that made me laugh heartily: "Whether your life seems better or worse to you may depend exclusively on four endorphins you've managed to scrape together by swimming"; "The wounded male ego is one of the most flammable materials that exist"; "I like babies crying on the bus in the morning, because that way there's someone who isn't pretending to be okay".