A review by swoody788
The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death by Jill Lepore

4.0

I promised my brother I'd finish this by his birthday, and I made it with two days to spare. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I absolutely loved the introduction, but it turned out a little differently than I thought it would. I understand now that most of the chapters were individual essays written for the New Yorker, but as I read through them I felt like there was something missing to tie them all together, aside from the obvious progression of tales from birth to death. I loved the premise of the book, and Lepore's sense of humor, and I appreciated her perspective on some hot-button political and social issues. I feel like I now have a much broader understanding of a few stances I had not considered valid at all before, and I can see the reasoning behind them. Overall, this book made me think about so many of the things in this day and age that we accept as "the way it has always been", when in fact a lot of these ideas/norms are fairly recent and the product of political motives. There is a lot of discussion of sexuality that I think may offend some, but I feel like for the most part it was tastefully done.