I’ll admit it: I liked the look of this book because the cover reminded me of a vanilla cupcake with sprinkles. When I read the premise – author Lauren Keenan has separated from her husband and while drenched in loneliness challenges herself to try 52 new things over the next year – I expected something just as sweet and easy-to-ingest.

Even without knowing a thing about Keenan’s marriage, I hoped for her and her husband, Alan, to be reunited. At the end of 2020’s tumultuous and unpredictable year, I hoped for a light, zippy read with a fairytale ending. Thankfully, Lauren Keenan is a much cleverer writer, researcher and possibly human than I am because The 52 Week Project delivers both what the cover may suggest and then some.

Keenan’s one new thing a week challenge starts off gently enough as she mostly experiments with her appearance. She tries fake eyelashes, gets her colours done, takes acne medication and wears bright red lipstick. She acknowledges early on the privilege of her mid-life analysis quoting Kieran Setiya, “I recognize the luxury of the midlife crisis, with a degree of guilt and shame.”

She explores the script many of us are given about the sort of life we are supposed to live and how and when the script starts to feel sad and claustrophobic. Keenan references Sheryl Sandberg, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz and our own Mary Holm within the first chapter alone and it’s clear The 52 Week Project is not going to be a detached, academic self-help novel or a navel-gazing, self-indulgent memoir but instead the best bits of both genres. The book reads like a journal but is peppered with quotes and statistics making it both smart and personal. While Keenan remains honest, funny and vulnerable, the reader has all the research they need - at the back of The 52 Week Project there is an extensive notes section as well as a seven-page bibliography for further reading.

To enjoy any book that is part-memoir, it is important to like the author; luckily Keenan is very likeable. She swears, uses hashtags and is aware of wider societal issues as she undertakes her personal quest. She also observes modern quandaries with relatable metaphors including: “Many of us are addicted to the internet. Including me … It’s the modern-day equivalent of walking out to the letterbox to see if the post has come, but in a world where there are thousands of mailboxes and the postie never rests”, before concluding the section with: “Social media is a reality of life for me – I just needed to learn to self-manage better. It’s like cake. It’s everywhere, but that doesn’t mean you should eat lots of it every day.” Keenan discusses porn and Facebook, drinking and when making jokes about yourself is helpful and when it is not. She relays a marital argument about purchasing a four-slice toaster before seguing into Eric Berne’s theory of transactional analysis. She never gives advice, simply describes her experience and offers research to prove hers is not uncommon.

While we unpick and follow Keenan’s marriage throughout the book, The 52 Week Project is just as focused on friendships and family relationships. Despite having three sisters and a ton of friends, both local and abroad, Keenan still feels the deep, sometimes wretched, loneliness many of us experience, regardless of age and stage; a yearning for acceptance and companionship. She aches when no-one responds to her request for company on a Friday night and learns to do things for and by herself during the course of the year. As she describes it, “I’d learned to fit my own oxygen mask”. It’s a joy to read Keenan’s growth in The 52 Week Project though she is quick to point out that no one heals in a straight line and the book is free of the schmaltz that may have put you off books labeled “self help” in the past.

In a league with Brene Brown, Glennon Doyle, Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Gilbert, The 52 Week Project is the perfect book to lead us out of 2020, giving us the insights, humour and support to dust ourselves off while the dust is settling. Keenan’s book is no cupcake; it’s the ideal gift for many of us who are looking for a good, accessible read as well as some life-navigation. As for whether Lauren and Alan get back together … you’ll just have to read the book to find out.

Reviewed by Hannah Tunnicliffe

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