A Review of Beth Evans’ “I Really Didn’t Think This Through”
A Real Rush
Beth Evans is an Instagram cartoonist who has a loyal following that’s in the hundreds of thousands. She’s also something of a naïve artist, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Her illustrations of people simply consist of upside down capital U’s with dotted eyes and a line for a mouth. If you think that’s cheating, well, I once talked to a professional cartoonist for a newspaper article I was writing, and he pointed out (and rightfully so) that people don’t read Dilbert for the art. They come for the funny. So, to that end, I’m happy to say that Evans’ work is, indeed, funny. And touching. And heartbreaking. In her debut memoir, I Really Didn’t Think This Through, I found that I wanted to reach out to the page and give the author a good bear hug at times. The work is that touching.
The book is a mishmash of written experience and doodles (if I can call them that — maybe “sketches” are more apropos?) that read like infographics more or less. This makes for an unusual reading experience, and, at less than 200 pages long, I Really Didn’t Think This Through was something of a lightning quick read. It’s another book about anxiety and phobias like this book I just reviewed, but Evan’s tome is much more “rah-rah” cheerleader-like and is full of sweet platitudes and “you can do it-ness.” It should be of no surprise that I appreciated this approach, though it should be said that Evans is no medical practitioner — she simply regales the reader with “how to” tips that have worked for her and she candidly admits that she’s still working through things in her life, though she’s gotten better at solving her issues.
A book like this is hard to review because it is essentially jampacked with cartoons, which are hard to talk about without giving away the punchlines and thus spoiling some of the best parts of the book. However, to give the reader an indication what you might be in for, I have included one of Evan’s drawings directly below (at random) so you get an indication of her style (and, if the author is reading this, please don’t sue me for copyright — I mean well!):
The book is essentially stuffed to the gills with these sorts of images, with the textual part being much more scant — the write-ups are a lead-in to these drawings. I read an e-galley of the book on my Kindle, and found that, while my antique Kindle was given a real workout loading the illustrated pages, I didn’t have too much difficulty reading the text and didn’t had any other major issues. (I should put the caveat in here that e-galleys don’t reflect the final published book, so I’m sure things will only improve for readers on any sort of digital devices when the book is released.) Anyhow, basically the book is mostly these drawings, which are critic-proof because a lot of them are so personal (and it would be churlish of me to comment on an artist’s personality, even though I don’t have anything really to say on that) and a lot of them have a useful utility of trying to help similar people who come to anxiety from the same place.
What I can say, I suppose, is that I liked Evans’ enthusiasm. She admits she’s not perfect, but that’s okay. For someone who had a major life crisis of sorts recently, hearing stuff like that just made me feel much better about my personal circumstances. So if you want to come to a book about anxiety feeling better about yourself, I Really Didn’t Think This Through is a winner. There’s a reason why Evans has some 200,000 people looking at her Instagram posts regularly. Her advice and insight — really meant for extreme anxiety sufferers — is pretty spot on.
I also have something of a light crush on Evans, even though I’m 42 and she’s in her 20s — and there’s probably no way in heck that any kind of relationship would work based on that age chasm. The reason why I’m swooning over her gently is that she’s a Rush fan! Now, it’s common knowledge that women, as a general rule, don’t like Rush (the band has even openly joked about this in their concerts, to which I’ve been to three). So it’s really nice to hear the perspective of a woman on the band, and there’s a whole chapter of the book titled “The Pass,” the significance of which is never explained as a sort of an insider-y nod to fellow Rush fans, dedicated to her love of the group. She talks about being disappointed that her anxiety kept her from going to any concerts while they were still active, and how she’s made peace with that. Beth, you are no less of a fan, so welcome to the club! (Well, if you can welcome someone who has been a fan for some time.) For years, I had to make do with concert videos as I was too young and too far away from major cities to see them play while growing up, and that’s an OK stand in. If my heart wasn’t leading me elsewhere to another fetching young lass in relation to pursing the opposite sex, just being a female Rush fan has me (jokingly) wishing the author would marry me simply because female Rush fans are so few and far between.
In any event, I would say I liked this book quite much. I liked that it was a quick and to the point read. There’s no fuss or bother with finding the time to whip through it. I thought the attitude and the advice was profound. Plus, the cartoons were cute and quaint, even if I’m sort of slapping myself on the head for not thinking that I could turn a smile upside down and add eyes and a mouth to it and get thousands of followers online for doing so. (Which is not meant to be a slag. I honestly feel like the move is sort of a smart one, and why couldn’t a non-artist such as myself think up that kind of brilliance?) Basically, this is a staggering work of heartbreaking genius (to borrow a phrase) and is the feel-good book of the summer for all of those going through some dark times. If you suffer from depression or anxiousness, read this book. As Evans would say, “You’ve got this.” So go get this one to find out how.
Beth Evans’ I Really Didn’t Think This Through: Tales from My So-Called Adult Life will be published by William Morrow Paperbacks on May 1, 2018.
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