I picked up Sara Benincasa’s Agorafabulous: Dispatches from my Bedroom from the library a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed the book. A memoir detailing Benincasa’s struggles with depression and agoraphobia, Agorafabulous is often funny and occasionally moving. As someone who dealt with depression in my teenage years, Sara’s observations come from a candid, compelling place.
Some of the later chapters read like short stories unto themselves; as a teacher, I was particularly enchanted by the author’s rough appraisal of working with… well, I guess I’ll say “inner city” students although I don’t believe Sara was working near a major metropolitan area.
I picked up the book as I’ve been a fan of Benincasa’s Sex and Other Human Activities podcast, wherein Sara and her co-host Marcus Parks answer questions about… well, pretty much anything, despite the specificity of the show’s name. On one of their earlier shows, Benincasa tells a story about a disastrous one night stand which made my wife and I howl with laughter on a drive somewhere or another. As a response to that, I drew this picture in my sketchbook, depicting one of the scenes described in that woeful tale:
I drew the thing and Ellen liked it enough to encourage me to send it over to Ms. Benincasa… which I did. She liked it enough to mention it on her podcast, which was a very nice thing and thoroughly impressed Ellen, so thanks for that Sara.
At any rate, the book is great, the story I drew this little sketchbook illustration for is included, and you should go out and read it.
