‘How to Live. What to Do’ by Josh Cohen

As soon as I saw the subtitle for this book – ‘In search of ourselves in life and literature’ – I knew I had to read it. Thanks to Sarah at Harwood PR for sending me a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review – opinions, as always, are entirely my own.

I love books about books and loved the sound of this one! Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst and Professor of Literary Theory – there is genuinely no-one better suited to take the reader through the trials of human life while also offering up literary examples of characters who have suffered the same timeless conundrums.

The book is organised into chapters covering specific life stages – we begin with childhood, before moving through various stages of adolescence, adulthood and old age. In each stage, various life events and situations are explored, for example the ‘Adulthood’ chapters offer us thoughts on ambition, marriage and middle-age. Each of these chapters offers us insights from Cohen’s own psychoanalytic practice, discussion on three fictional characters who faced these issues, plus a good dose of Cohen’s anecdotes from his personal life.

I’ll admit that I came to this book for the literature, but stayed because I found Cohen a charming and fascinating guide. I genuinely loved his self-deprecating and thoughtful reflections on his own experiences – the ‘S’up, Grandad’ story and his imagined witty response (thought of too late – always the way!) made me smile in particular.

That’s not to say the bits about books aren’t interesting – they absolutely are. As is always the case, this type of book works best when you are familiar with the literary text being discussed. For this reason, reading about my personal favourites provided some of the highlights of the book for me. Indeed, learning lessons about middle-age from Clarissa Dalloway, ambition from Jay Gatsby or first love from Young Werther was an absolute pleasure. There were also lots of characters and books referred to that I wasn’t familiar with – these sections were still engrossing and even added a few new novels to my TBR.

There are too many ideas packed into this book to really do them justice in a review. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed Cohen’s arguments about what we learn about the life stages from literature and psychoanalysis – the chapters do hang together well and advance understanding of life, even if we aren’t ever really given the solution to ‘How to Live’! Instead, we are offered some thoughts on how others before us (both fictional and real-life) have navigated the issues and what we can possibly learn from them.

I’d recommend this to my fellow bookworms – there is definitely more enjoyment in exploring familiar texts and I was most at home with books I knew and loved. Luckily, Cohen gives us quite a range of books and characters to think about, from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to ‘Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha’ – there is something for everyone.

However, there is also plenty to enjoy for those coming to the book from an interest in psychoanalysis or even just life in general. Cohen’s lucid and engaging analysis of real and fictional ‘people’ is fascinating and enlightening at the same time. The overall effect is like chatting to a really knowledgeable, witty teacher of literature who can also make incisive links to real life and human behaviour – and I loved it.

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