Dear Bibliotherapist,
I find myself constantly desiring what other people have…Can Literature help me out of this terrible envy that seems to consume me?
Dear Consumed,
The first thing you need to do is to cut yourself off from all envy inducing images, words and ultimately thoughts, by going on a radical magazine diet. Avoid all glossies, especially with travel sections. Don’t watch telly. Don’t surf the web unless you have to for work. Hopefully you don’t work in the travel industry. If you do, consider a new job. Set up space on your balcony, back garden or roof top for just yourself and the following books. Leave your phone turned off and unobtainable. Unplugged from the channels that so frequently lead to envy and desire, now sit down with a few good books to keep your mind full of interesting thoughts, rather than pointless desires for what you cannot have.
Ian Sinclair’s new book Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project is the ideal book to quell your envy. The title is explained by Sinclair as meaning “Embalming Fluid” or Soul Food for the Dead”. His mission is to look at ruined and forsaken grand projects, including a long hard look at the Olympian offerings, a year before the Games begin. Sinclair’s writing is challenging and poetic; he keeps your eyes firmly peeled for visions of the strangeness of modern life. Frequently looking backwards to the past and towards the future at the same time, you feel like a chameleon looking concurrently in different directions - while also becoming one with your environment. By reading this you will begin to tune yourself into being in the place that you are, rather than the mythical place you wish you were.
I suggest you then read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. Portraying the day to day lives of six residents of Chongin, the third largest city in North Korea, living under a totalitarian regime with incredible deprivation of body and spirit, Demick shows their amazing resilience under appalling conditions. The title comes from a song that schoolchildren in North Korea sing, incorporating the line “we have nothing to envy in the world”. Little do they realise how their lives compare to ours in the West. This book will shake you out of your own desires for greater material wealth, even health and happiness, as you will be forced to see your own life through the eyes of these people who in some cases watch their spouses starve before their eyes, and do not dare to criticise the regime within the walls of their own homes.
After this you will need the respite of a lighter read. Find the wonderful Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, in which two appalling little girls live their lives consumed by envy, and are brought to a satisfactory comeuppance. It’s a story about an orphan girl who goes to live with her cousins living on the edge of the Amazon river. Maia is thrilled at the prospect of finding family living in such an exotic location, but realises when she arrives that all the cousins desire is Maia’s allowance, provided for her care. Their limitless wishes for clothes and parties serves as a stark contrast for Maia’s own love of nature and people. Being a children’s book, the conclusion is pleasing all round, and you will find yourself , like Maia turning to appreciate the birds and bees around you rather than focussing endlessly on what you don’t have.
Ella Berthoud is a bibliotherapist at The School of Life. For more information about the service click here. Holiday reading dilemmas? Book into a speedy session to identify the perfect inspiring summer read. For more details click here.
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