Coping with Life’s Clutter

Recently I slumped into a heavy leather couch with a deep sigh and met the eyes of a friend. I was having one of those moments where stress levels run high, and needed to unload the mess my life had become.

We have all, surely, had those moments. And so has Lauren Suval.

Picking up a (digital) copy of Suval’s eBook, Coping With Life’s Clutter, resembled what I imagine a conversation with her might be like. In this compilation of essays, Suval focuses on identifying and coping with life’s stresses and traumas, all from her own perspective and life experience. Rooted in authenticity and communicated with vulnerability, the book swings between narrative memoir and second-person self-help. But because of that, it often reads more like a sporadic thought process than a cohesive literary work.

Many psychology books fall down the slippery slope to self-help land, which is where this particular compilation of essays goes, somewhat abruptly. At times, Suval (who also writes for Psych Central), uses repetition to create a nearly melodic tone, or lays out her personal thoughts — then shifts abruptly to citing magazine articles and self-help sites.

Chapters focus on different things, such as coping with stress and letting go of what’s out of our control. Suval draws on life lessons from Adele and Eat, Pray, Love, and discusses how to view life’s “clutter,” as she puts it. Her insights on the impact of trauma, endings, and difficult changes are personal and subjective, often remaining open-ended questions. While they are very well-written — to the brink of waxing poetic — they do not strike me as relatable. In some places, Suval’s own commentary sprinkled with tidbits from psychology left me wondering what was fact and what was personal.

While the book thrives in its authentic and straightforward writing style, its disjointed nature and lack of continuity from essay to essay, and from source material to supposition, leaves something to be desired. It’s clear from the text that these essays were composed separately, and on their own are introspective and intuitive dialogues with the world; however, they lack a unifying thread or consistent tone to link them together.

Still, although the essays read as a group of separate pieces that have not yet been fully adapted as a cohesive book, the work has the potential to be a valuable piece of self-help or introspective literature. The work is written clearly and concisely and does not add in unnecessary fluff, even if I found myself longing for more connection between essayistic parts and self-help.

If Suval could tie some of these parts together, elaborate on the accepted psychology research as well as her own anecdotes, and weave in pop culture references that endear chapters like “Adele: Heartbreak as a Catalyst” to the reader, Coping with Life’s Clutter would be a delightful and insightful read with clear takeaways for its audience.

Coping with Life’s Clutter
Amazon Digital Services, October 2015
eBook, 67 pages
$3.99