A review by erinnbatykefer
The Book of Hygge: The Danish Art of Contentment, Comfort, and Connection by Louisa Thomsen Brits

3.0

This little book was frustrating. I understand that Brits was approaching the subject of hygge from a cultural perspective, attempting to distill tightly woven threads of tradition, landscape, aesthetics, self-care, language, etc, but her articulation of subtleties felt more like repetition. It's obvious that she has a deep understanding of the concept, and since she great up between a Danish family and an English one, she might be the perfect person to expiate one people's customs in the language of the other. But ultimately, I felt like she was consistently grasping at the space between what she said and the concept.

The experience of reading was repetitious at best. I think perhaps a more effective approach would be to share practical examples and then do some poetic work to explain the resulting feeling-- for people and groups-- from the "space" created by various hyggelig objects and environments. This book seems to prove that the only truly effective way to articulate something ineffable is to share the experience.