Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Staff Review by Jack Edson:
Most of the people who come to the library looking for a book to help cure whatever is ailing them head straight for the non-fiction. They go to the medical books, the self-help books, the relationship books and the pop psychology books.
Now, we can skip all that. This touching and amusing book gives us a “novel” way to handle most all the problems that life dishes out, by using, well, novels, to gain wisdom, to see how someone in literature handled a similar problem.
Perhaps your problem is dealing with Aging Parents. Well, you simply have to read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and witness Christmas reunion of the Lambert family. Are you dealing with Adultery? Then you had better turn to Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina and see how those girls handled it. By the way, Anna Karenina is also helpful if you are suffering from Toothache.
Common problems such as Love, Unrequited are covered and you are invited to choose between Bel Canto by Ann Patchett or The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.
The authors of The Novel Cure; from Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 books to cure what ails you, Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, describe bibliotherapy as “the prescribing of fiction for life’s ailments” and they dispense this type of medicine for both emotional and physical pain; for the broken heart as well as for the broken leg. If your problem is Shame, then read The Help by Kathryn Stockett. If you suffer from Being Short, then go to the shelves and find The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass or The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. These two books are also useful if you know someone suffering from Napoleon Complex.
So many contemporary issues are considered: Shopaholism (American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis); Sex, Too Much (Women by Charles Bukowski); or Road Rage (Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, among many other books.) These prescriptions provide great reading as they summarize the complicated plots of great works of literature, pulling out many a subplot and emphasizing its usefulness for bibliotherapy. (I guess you could argue that The Poisonwood Bible really was about Busy, Being Too.) This book is full of humor and compassion and you will find many suggestions for great books that you will want to read, both to help you through your problems and to enrich your life.
If you’re interested in this book, there is a library in your neighborhood where you can find it. Your public library is a source of immediate gratification. Take a walk to your local branch and discover a vital resource that is there for the taking. Whether it’s current events, a visit to our downtown cafe called fables, something for the kids, or even booking a librarian, we’re not just books anymore! Your free Buffalo & Erie County Public Library card is your ticket to millions of free resources – e-books, downloadable music, research databases, genealogical materials, our complete catalog, and of course, more than 3 million book titles. All of this is at your fingertips at any Library in Erie County or from your own computer – check us out at www.buffalolib.org.