Cain utilizes an engaging blend of interviews, research, firsthand accounts, and biographical anecdotes to explore the many beneficial aspects of appreciating this mindset.

On one of the first pages Cain writes, 'I didn’t fact-check the stories people told me about themselves, but included only those I believed to be true.' After that, it’s difficult to know how seriously to take this book as a document of scholarship or reportage.

While this argument is moving, this book misses some crucial components of the conversation, diluting her claims in the process.

Is Bittersweet musicology, a biography of emotions, a heartfelt memoir or an airport self-help work? The answer seems unclear even after my second reading, but it certainly draws on all those genres in a style that mirrors the language of TED talks, graduation speeches and therapeutic podcasts. Cain is a poetic writer, and she is self-consciously publishing Bittersweet in a much more emotionally raw and revelatory moment than when [her previous book] Quiet was released.

With great compassion, [Cain] explores causes for these emotions by candidly chronicling her personal experiences and those of others throughout history who have suffered loss.

Cain handily traverses fields as diverse as neuroscience, popular music, religion, and business management to find instances of the transformation of pain and longing into fulfillment.