How to Live. What to Do: In Search of Ourselves in Life and Literature

by Josh Cohen

A brilliant psychoanalyst and professor of literature invites us to contemplate profound questions about the human experience by focusing on some of the best-known characters in literature—from how Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway copes with the inexorability of midlife disappointment to Ruth's embodiment of adolescent rebellion in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.

“So beautiful ... a fantastic book.” —Zadie Smith, best-selling author of White Teeth

In supple and elegant prose, and with all the expertise and insight of his dual professions, Josh Cohen explores a new way for us to understand ourselves. He helps us see what Lewis Carroll’s Alice and Harper Lee’s Scout Finch can teach us about childhood. He delineates the mysteries of education as depicted in Jane Eyre and as seen through the eyes of Sandy Stranger in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

He discusses the need for adolescent rebellion as embodied in John Grimes in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain and in Ruth in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. He makes clear what Goethe’s Young Werther and Sally Rooney’s Frances have—and don’t have—in common as they experience first love; how Middlemarch’s Dorothea Brooke deals with the vicissitudes of marriage. Vis-a-vis old age and death, Cohen considers what wisdom we may glean from John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and from Don Fabrizio in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard.



   • Alice—Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass
   • Scout Finch—Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
   • Jane Eyre—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
   • John Grimes—James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
   • Ruth—Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
   • Vladimir Petrovitch—Ivan Turgenev, First Love
   • Frances—Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends
   • Jay Gatsby—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
   • Esther Greenwood—Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
   • Clarissa Dalloway—Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
   • And more!

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Books About Books, Philosophy, Self Help, Literary Criticism, Writing

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Josh Cohen is a professor of modern literary theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a psychoanalyst in private practice. He is the author of many books, including The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark

Reviews

[Micah Cummins · Rating 3 out of 5]

In How to Live. What to Do, Josh Cohen brings to the table his fourteen years of experience as a practicing psychoanalyst, and his time teaching literary theory to bring us this delightful book. I found it witty, enlightening, and overall, quite enjoyable and what I would consider a "cozy" read. There were moments in which I felt the author was somewhat repeating himself or was proceeding slightly too slow for my taste, but these were not common moments, and I would still recommend this book to all interested in literature and the impact it has on us the reader. 3.5 stars

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Literature and psychoanalysis are both efforts to make sense of the world through stories, to discover the recurring problems and patterns and themes of life. Read and listen enough, and we soon come to notice how insistently the same struggles, anxieties and hopes repeat themselves down the ages and across the world.”

This is the premise for Cohen’s work life, and for this book. Moving through the human experience from youth to old age, he examines anonymous case studies and works of literature that speak to the sorts of situations encountered in that stage. For instance, he recommends Alice in Wonderland as a tonic for the feeling of being stuck – Lewis Carroll’s “let’s pretend” attitude can help someone return to the playfulness and openness of childhood. William Maxwell’s They Came Like Swallows, set during the Spanish flu, takes on new significance for Cohen in the days of Covid as his appointments all move online; he also takes from it the importance of a mother for providing emotional security. A bibliotherapy theme would normally be catnip for me, but I often found the examples too obvious and the discussion too detailed (and thus involving spoilers). Not a patch on The Novel Cure.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Andrew Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is the similarity between psychoanalysis and great literature? The answer, according to Cohen who is a university professor and an analyst, is neither offer simple answers to complex questions. With books, you have the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of someone else, understand what makes them click and why they do what they do. With analysis, which is generally over several years, you do something similar with your unconscious and understand yourself better.

Cohen takes us through the life stages from childhood to death with examples from his case book and famous literary characters - like Alice, Jane Eyre, Clarissa Dalloway, surprising choices like Never Let Her Go by Ishiguro and several books that were new to me (but I will add to my to read list)

I underlined several passages to contemplate later, for example how a lack of childhood play and imagination hampers us as adults, what we need to rebel (a true understanding of our past and inheritance and clear sense of the future) and the importance of curiosity - in general - but how easily it is snuffed out in long-term marriages.

As a therapist myself and a keen reader, I loved how Cohen links the two strands of his life. I believe that the classics have endured - like myths and fairy tales - because they speak to us on a deeper level than just an entertaining story. In the words of Cohen, they have suggestion on 'How to Live'

Cohen is also a guest on my podcast 'The Meaningful Life with Andrew G Marshall'. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a veteran of psychotherapy with a long life of reading and teaching fiction, I was fascinated to learn of English psychotherapist Josh Cohen's book interweaving his own history, case studies of anonymous patients, and characters from novels together into life stages from childhood to old age and death. Since I'd read most of the books Cohen sensitively considered it was fun to encounter them again, from Alice in the Wonderland, which I'd hated, to Isabel Archer, which has transfixed me, and the rabbity Rabbit, that masterwork of suburban lust. Finally, I understood that I'd hated Alice in Wonderland because unlike its heroine I did not have the resilience to enjoy her fantasy; that Isabel Archer and Dorothea Brooke were unhappy in their marriage choices because they blithely had idealized the wedded state. Cohen's hard-won and often painful insights about himself, fictional characters, and his patients save his book from being dryly didactic; instead, his insights strike to the core, urging us to love our rocky earth while forgiving our imperfect selves rather than reaching tirelessly for the blinding sun.

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some wonderful premises that pushed me (as a reader and a psychotherapist) to read this book: a psychoanalyst author who uses books to explain the fundamental stages of man's social development.
Unfortunately, however, I found the book a bit too boring and long-winded, and the psychoanalyst and I sometimes have different interpretations of the same situation. Apart from that, I am sure that most people will like it and it is my responsibility not to have appreciated it properly.

C'erano delle premesse meravigliose che mi avevano spinto (da lettore e psicoterapeuta) a leggere questo libro: uno psicoanalista che utilizza libri per spiegare le tappe fondamentali dello sviluppo sociale dell'uomo.
Purtroppo peró io ho trovato il libro un po' troppo noioso e prolisso e inoltre io e lo psicoanalista abbiamo a volte delle interpretazioni diverse per la stessa situazione. A parte questo peró sono sicura che possa piacere ai piú e che é mia responsabilitá non averlo apprezzato a dovere.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

[Owlseyes]

https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandst...

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

did he really have to quote Freud that much?

[MANTĖ || mantes.istorijos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aš esu iš tų žmonių, kurie iš tikrųjų atsakymų į visus „kaip gyventi“ ir „ką daryti“ ieško knygose, tad šios pavadinimas bei tema – grožinės literatūros lyginimas su psichoterapija – mane iš karto suintrigavo: čia man ir apie mane! O jos autorius – ne tik psichoanalitikas, bet ir literatūros profesorius, tad žadamas tikrai profesionalus žvilgsnis į įdomią temą.

Ir išties, čia radau gausybę labai taiklių, man artimų minčių apie grožinę literatūrą ir jos naudą – knyga pilna lipnių lapelių su pažymėtom man įstrigusiom mintim. Įdomiausia man ir buvo pačioj pradžioj, kur autorius kalba apie grožinės literatūros ir psichoterapijos panašumus apskritai.

Ši knyga padalinta į keturias pagrindines temas, atitinkančias žmogaus amžiaus tarpsnį: vaikystę, jaunystę, brandą bei senatvę. Joms autorius parenka po keletą skirtingų literatūros kūrinių ir juos analizuoja. Pagrindinius tų knygų herojus ne tik analizuoja tarsi jie būtų pacientai psichoterapeuto kabinete, bet dar ir lygina juos su realiais savo pacientais, kurie iš esmės susidūrė su tokiom pačiom vidinėm problemom kaip ir knygų herojai. Šioje knygoje aptariami tokie klasikiniai kūriniai kaip „Alisa stebuklų šalyje“, „Nežudyk strazdo giesmininko“, „Džeinė Eir“, „Moters portretas“, „Ponia Delovėj“, „Didysis Getsbis“ bei daugybė kitų, ir net šiuolaikiniai „Pokalbiai su draugais“.

Tačiau kad ir kaip įdomiai visa tai skambėtų, ėmus keliauti per minėtus skyrius, dažnai apimdavo jausmas, kad skaitau tiesiog kažkieno kūrinio interpretaciją – kuri nebūtinai yra vienintelė teisinga, ir suprantama tik būtent taip. Taip pat turiu pripažinti, kad vietomis skaityti sekėsi sunkiai ir buvo nuobodu – iš esmės dėl to, kad toli gražu ne visus analizuojamus kūrinius esu skaičiusi.

[Christina Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck self-help! Pick up a novel (or some Freud) instead!

[Ailin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got so many book recs from this, thank you!
(Do feel like I maybe should’ve read some of these before reading an analysis book of them, but alas - I actually kinda feel like some of the insight here will affect my reading for the better! )

Started reading this one in my lunch breaks and so was off to a slow start, with what ended up being my least favourite part of the book as well, the Childhood chapter. Perhaps partially because it feels like the most commonly discussed part of psychoanalysis to me so far and I’m tired of it, and because of my short reading sessions during that part.

But!! When I got to the parts of love, ambition, adulthood and mid-life, that’s when this really shone for me. Some solid character studies and stories of the author’s experience with his own cases - however reimagined for privacy and re-telling they are - were interesting to see through his eyes, and in comparison to each other.
And I appreciated reading about very contemporary events and subjects as well, concerning my own generation, that doesn’t condemn us either, from an ‘outsider’ perspective.
(Bizarre to me to read psychoanalysis that also addresses Gen Z, climate crisis and Covid-19. Like I haven’t read a published non-fiction book from so recent before I think lol)

It’s a rather cosy and fun read I think, not too complicated for anyone who might find psychoanalytical books daunting.

[Mohammed Minhazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic!

[Hypha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took awhile to get into, but otherwise was a very informative and interesting look into how literature mirrors and guides our lives.
Only gripe was the use of Freud so much.
Other than that, a wonderful look into humanity and literature.

[Becca]

How To Live. What To Do. Is a fascinating read about life, the combination of learning from fiction and it’s relatability to reality.

The book is sorted into chapters for each life stage, meaning it’s easy to follow chronologically. You begin with childhood and move right through to old age.

Cohen really takes us through the stages with him and along the way shares bits of his own life. I feel like this made the narrative more relatable and I found him a humorous and likeable narrator.

The seamless transitions between life events, patients stories and the chosen literature is extremely well written. The explanations make so much sense, and I definitely found myself relating to elements and questioning things that I do.

The explanations of each of the referenced books are concisely written, but with enough information so as you understand the story if you haven’t read it. This really helps to link the cases and the ‘reality’ to the fiction. I found it fascinating that an entire lifetimes worth of events have links to fiction and can teach us a lot about ourselves and society.

Cohen writes in a way that’s easy to understand and despite the sometimes complex and ‘deep’ subject matter, it’s easy to navigate. Having once studied psychology as an a level subject, I find this kind of subject matter especially interesting.

Be prepared, the book definitely provided me with some new potential reads to add to my ever-growing list!

[Sierra Apaliski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5 stars. Josh Cohen is a great writer, and his ability to identify and analyze the intersectionality of personal experience and emotion with that written in literature is fascinating. Though I admit, the structure of the book based on age groups was not my favorite. It caused me to skip around to the chapters I found more interesting and relatable.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

How I discovered him

LIFE & CULTURE
OPINION

Dazed Magazine

Everyone needs to grow up

Whether it’s people who mention their Hogwarts house on their Hinge profile or literal white supremacists, culture is awash with adult babies

10 March 2023
Text James Greig

We are a generation of adult babies. You can see it in the widely circulated – and largely untrue – idea that the human brain isn’t developed until the age of 25, which means that anyone younger is still essentially a child. It’s there in the notion that people with ADHD can’t text back their friends because they lack object permanence (a skill that babies develop at eight months old). It’s there in the narrative that, because gay people didn’t experience a normal childhood, they’re living out a second adolescence in their twenties and thirties. It’s there in the hegemony of superhero films and the cross-generational popularity of YA, whose fans insist that grown-up literature is only ever about depressed college professors having affairs.

You can see it in Disney adults; the rise of cuteness as a dominant aesthetic category; the resurgence of stuffed animals; people who identify as Hufflepuffs on their Hinge profile; people throwing tantrums when their Gorillas rider is five minutes late; people lip-syncing, with pouted lips and furrowed brows, to audio tracks of toddlers. Sometimes, it’s less about pretending to be a child and more about harking back to a lost adolescence: narrativising your life like it’s a John Green novel or an episode of Euphoria, bragging about crazzzy exploits like smoking cigarettes on a swing or doing cocaine on a Thursday; hitting 30 and still considering yourself “precocious”.

Most complaints about the infantilism of young people have typically come from the right, which has pointed to safe spaces and trigger warnings as evidence that Gen Z and millennials have been coddled to the point of softness. The right-wing critique of infantilism usually contends that, due to a vague decline in moral fibre, young people aren’t willing to embrace the mantles of adulthood, like moving out of the family home, entering into a stable career, getting married and starting a family.

For the most part, though, swerving these milestones is not an active choice that young people are making: adulthood is something that has been denied to many of us, who couldn’t buy a flat or start a family even if we wanted to.

“In an age where so much agency has been taken away from young adults, when they face futures saddled with debt, unable to access the basic material trappings of adulthood, which in turn delays entry into emotional adulthood indefinitely, a retreat into the dubious comforts of a pseudo-childhood will have its pull,” Professor Josh Cohen, psycho-analyst and author of How to Live, What to Do, tells Dazed.

That said, even if the economy is foisting an extended adolescence on us, we can still choose to assert our dignity and refuse to become “baby adults” or 26-year-old teenagers, helpless and dependent. Make no mistake: the capitalist elites want you to think of yourself as a silly little goose. “From a psychoanalytic perspective, self-infantilisation makes uncannily good sense. It is a kind of identification with one’s own powerlessness, and so gives it a veneer of active choice,” says Cohen. “Freud pointed out that when small children play games, they are often re-enacting a traumatic situation with the aim of exerting control over it. I can’t bear it when mummy leaves, so if I throw this puppet on a string and pull it back, I’ll be in control of when she leaves and when she returns. I think self-infantilisation is a belated version of this. If as an adult I play at innocence, cuteness and delicacy, then I choose and assume some command over my feeling of helplessness.”

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh Cohen was one of the many interesting thinkers and writers I heard speak at the 2023 Adelaide Writers Week earlier this year.

I was, and am, intrigued by the fact that he is both a practicing clinical psychoanalyst and a Professor of Literary theory, whose main research interests are psychoanalysis, literature and philosophy. https://www.gold.ac.uk/ecw/staff/j-co...

How To Live emerges from the interface of these interests. ‘Literature and psychoanalysis are both efforts to make sense of the world through stories, to discover the recurring problems and patterns and themes of life. Read and listen enough, and we soon come to notice how insistently the same struggles, anxieties, anxieties and hopes repeat themselves down the ages and across the world,’ yet each life has its own singularity.

This is not a self-help book offering universal prescriptions for wellbeing. Its title comes from a poem by Wallace Stevens, in which two wanderers seek a ‘sun of fuller fire’, and stopping and listening on the way they discover a ‘heroic sound/ Joyous and jubilant and sure’. What if, he says, we lived so that instead of searching for an imagined object ahead of us, we ‘stopped at something in front of us, and rested, and listened.

Each of the eight chapters is based on a life stage – the first six dealing with the stages in which we form as people, and the last two with aging and death. In each one, Cohen outlines the main perspectives of one life stage, using mainly the thinking of Erikson and Freud but also other psychologists and psychoanalysts; then teases out these ideas by discussing characters from main three novels (others flick past like swallows); introducing a constructed case from his professional life and his own experience.

It’s hard to describe, and I don't think I’ve done a very good job at that, but it makes for a brilliant journey, sparkling with ideas. He wrote it for a generalist audience, not an academic one, which makes it approachable.

Part of the back cover blurb gives you an idea of the range:
How to Live, what to Do plots a course through the stages of our lives, discovering in each the surprising and profound insights literature has to offer. Beginning with the playful mindset of Wonderland’s Alice, we discover the resilience of Jane Eyre, the rebellious rage of Baldwin’s Johnny Grimes and the turbulence of first love for Sally Rooney’s Frances, the sorrows of marriage for Middlemarch’s Dorothea Brooke and the regrets and comforts of middle age for Rabbit Angstrom.

Cohen introduced me to the ideas of Erik Erikson, whose work on the life cycle I will pursue. I’m excited by his expression of the idea that in our middle and later life stages we have a choice between ‘generativity’ on the one hand and ‘stagnation’ on the other as responses to the dawning realisation of mortality.

These are, of course, poles at either end of a spectrum.

I especially like his inclusion of Mrs Dalloway and The Leopard for his chapters on maturity and ageing:

This is a book I will come back to; my copy is stuck full with place makers and I’ve found that when I do check something back I keep on reading. I’ve also bought two copies to give to friends I know will find it absorbing

[Jelena Jusis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Šią knygą skaičiau tikrai ne iš smagumo, o iš žingeidumo ir kažkiek iš užsispyrimo. Pati tokios knygos idėja labai įdomi. Autorius psichoterapeutas ir literatūros profesorius per knygų personažų pavyzdžius bei savo pacientų ir asmenines patirtis aptaria skirtingus gyvenimo etapus: nuo vaikystės žaidimų ir asmenybės formavimo mokykloje, per paauglišką maištą ir pirmąją meilę, per suaugusiojo ambicijas, santuoką ir vidurio amžiaus išgyvenimus iki senatvės privalumų ir trūkumų. Taigi, knygoje aptariamos pakankamai universalios patirtys, kurių paprastai neišvengia nei vienas žmogus. Žinoma, įdomiausiai buvo skaityti skyrius apie knygas, kurias esu pati perskaičiusi. Deja tokiu mažuma, o iš aptariamų knygų sąrašo aišku, kad nemažai autoriaus pasirinktų knygų net nėra išverstos į lietuvių kalbą.

Tai knyga, kuri savaip atsako į klausimą, kodėl mes skaitome. Šis klausimas gali turėti šimtus atsakymų, bet „knygų terapijos“ aspektą paliečianti perspektyva, kai akistata su knygos personažu gali tapti ir akistata su pačiu savimi, man tikrai įdomi. Ir žinoma smalsu bent trumpam patekti ir į psichoterapeuto kabinetą ir sužinoti, kas vyksta jame už uždarų durų ir po konfidencialumo skraiste.

Autorius rašo: „Psichoanalizė, kaip ir grožinė literatūra, vengia lengvų atsakymų į sunkius gyvenimo klausimus ir primena, kad mokantis gyventi svarbu pripažinti, jog neįmanoma išvengti chaoso ir skausmo, kuris yra neatsiejamas nuo gyvenimo.“ Šioje knygoje taip pat nėra lengvų atsakymų ir paprastų gyvenimo receptų ar instrukcijų.

Gera knyga, iš kurios gavau daugiau nei atidaviau jai skaitymo laiko. Ir 4 žvaigždutėmis vertinu ne tiek knygą, kiek savo jos skaitymo patirtį, kurią apsunkino tai, jog nesu susipažinusi su dauguma aptartų knygų (iš 24 knygų skaičiau tik 4). Todėl dažnai jaučiausi neužtikrintai, negalėdama pasikliauti savo įspūdžiais ir nuomone, negalėdama nei sutikti su autoriumi, nei jam paprieštarauti. Tokį skaitymą galėčiau palyginti ne su pokalbiu mintyse su knygos autoriumi, o su jo monologo klausimu.

[Col. Lecter · Rating 2 out of 5]

One can only do justice to this "listen", if one has read all the books the author alludes to. So, not having read any of them, I was quite lost. That is not the author's fault. The two-star rating is a function of my satisfaction and take-away from the book at this point in time.

I could come back once I read or listen to the books that were discussed here, but that is very unlikely - running a search is not as easy with an audio book. But, yes, I could do it with an ebook - then again, most e-readers (say google play) make it difficult. I couldn't run a search on the google play app on my Android phone the last time I looked, but maybe it is possible to do so elsewhere on another app / platform. I'll wait and see how that goes. In the meanwhile, there is value to be had here, I think, if one has already done the books being discussed or having given it a listen this once, I could come back and refer to the relevant parts as and when I do the books, if I remember to do so - about then.

I can't comment on how good the material is, I was pretty much lost throughout this listen, couldn't concentrate on the material, or just wasn't paying enough attention - and that's all on me! The extra star is to give the author the benefit of the doubt.

[Matthew yarusso · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a Venn diagram of real life psychology, Freudian theory, and literary analysis. It holds up well over 300 pages, though some of the examples are stretched to cover a larger point than the exposition allows. The limited number of literary examples takes away from the power off the book; compared how to read like a lit professor, which at times is showing off how much the author has read, this book is limited to the point of being too specific-these 15 texts hold the key. There needs to a broader, more openness to the experience of all literature as a source of understanding ourselves. Cohen misses the very point of literature as a guide to life-that all literature should help us examine the deeper currents of our actions and help us manifest the best part of ourselves. instead, I’m lost with references to texts I have never read rather than being prepared for reflecting on texts I have read and ones I will read. And yet let me eve with this-I greatly enjoyed the book and it’s discussion of Freud through literature and composites of real patients (which come off all the more real as Cohen admits to struggling with listening and helping them-a more true picture of counseling than we usually get).

[Ray Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bearing a slightly off-putting title (at least for independence-minded Americans*), this London psychiatrist’s insights to the human condition is a gift to readers of novels. Chapters divide life into milestone phases, then use explications of 24 different novels published between 1871 (Lewis Carroll) and 2017 (Sally Rooney) to analyze a major aspect of each life phase. Combining literary and Freudian analysis could be dry stuff, but Cohen makes it interesting. It’s like looking again at literary characters we either know or have heard about – with a psychiatrist chairside to point out the nuances built into the character(s) by each author. Cohen keeps it light. For example, each character is introduced with faux private notes by her/his psychiatrist. This fictional doc is never sure what to make of the subject. Cohen steps in to provide answers. His claims about the life guidance those authors are offering through these characters can enrich fiction readers. It also inspires closer reading. This is lit crit from a different perspective than the English Department.

*Ironically, the title comes from an American poet.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is both a practicing psychotherapist and a professor of English Literature and this book takes you from early childhood through to death via examining works of literature mixed in with discussions of some of Cohen’s patients. The books focus is on what we can learn about ourselves and how best to approach life from these literary and real life characters.

Everything from Alice in Wonderland through to Conversations With Friends are used as examples plus quite a few books that I’d not heard of before but are now on the tbr.

A few things I learnt from the book are:
Let children play and use their imagination - it will help them in their adult relationships.
Quite often the joy of life is found in the small and everyday things (think Mrs Dalloway) and is right under our noses if only we will see it.
Enjoy the present as it’s all we are guaranteed.

If you enjoy reading books about books then this is one for you.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very cool premise, combining two of my interests – literature and psychology. And it works, to a certain point. Writing fake case files of literary characters to open each section was a delightful little device, and the books picked were all wonderful and worthy.

My issue? Way too much Freud (has he not been fully debunked by now?) and a few gaps in gender theory application – specifically in the Portrait of a Lady section. Isabel Archer is wonderful, but are we really going to ignore Henrietta Stackpole and Madame Merle? I think that’s a bit limited and irresponsible if you’re trying to analyze the options available to women in James’s era.

What this book was great for is reminding me of some classics that absolutely deserve a re-read posthaste.

[Sherlyn Mae Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I want to finish it because how the book is structured in terms of life stages made the other (irrelevant/'can't-relate') chapters less appealing to me. As a 30-year old unmarried woman, only the chapter on 'Ambition' caught my interest. To be fair, I like how the author was able to analyze and link literary characters with real-life problems and ways of thinking. I love reading about psychology and the said chapter made me rethink of how I view ambition and all the existential brouhaha present in millennial and gen-z generations.

[Henry Fosdike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know if this is deserving of 5 stars because of the idea or because of how much I enjoyed it. Perhaps both. Josh Cohen takes us on an interesting and thought provoking journey through life, via psychoanalysis of literary characters. Alongside this, he throws in composites of real life cases. Sounds great doesn’t it?

I loved the way it came together. It’s extremely thoughtful and also throws up a few books for the reading list. No bad thing! Highly recommended.

[Emmy Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an inspiring journey through all phases of life - the importance of them, the struggles, and the triumph in passing through to the other side. I annotated so much in the beginning and middle of the book but slowed way down towards the end - however that is not a phase of life I have reached yet. I would say some references were lost on me because I am not a classical genre person however still a very enjoyable book.

[Brenna Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've come to read these words again and again over the course of my ownership of this book and am fascinated every time with what new things I catch.

this book 📖 is a testament to the beauty of observation.

and a reminder 🤍 that sharing such always leads to growth within.

thank you, Josh, for this remarkable jewel of wisdom 💎

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
How to Live. What to Do offers insightful and practical advice that empowers readers to make positive changes in their lives. With its approachable tone and actionable strategies, it's an inspiring read for anyone looking to improve their mindset and overall well-being.

[John Kissane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wise, serious tour through the major stops of most lives, written by a psychologist. Despite the title, it isn’t prescriptive. Instead, it examines characters from literature, as well as disguised real-life case studies, to get at universal truths.

[Marie Summers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read the chapters that dealt with the ages of family members. I found it to be esoteric and only included "literature" in the scholarly sense. It seem to talk about the disappointments to expect. It sounded like different difficulties to expect and how you cannot really help them.

[Cynthia Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one did not pull me in at first, but by the end of the book, I was really enjoying the tying of literature themes with life themes.