A Brief History of Melancholy: Vignettes on the Usual, American, Feel-Good-Life, of Nostalgia, Despair, and Mental Illness

A Brief History of Melancholy is a series of short stories from nameless perspectives on depression, nostalgia, and inner unrest. It's part memoir, part short story, part prose poetry. Each story or vignette deals with topics ranging from faith, to motherhood, suicide, modernity, addiction, despair, fame, and vanity. Rogers mixes dark humor with haunting honesty, but never takes himself too seriously.