The Complexities of Giving Advice Through Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things

About the Author

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Her bestselling collection Tiny Beautiful Things has been adapted for a Hulu television series and has been adapted as a stage play. The popularity of Dear Sugar gave Cheryl two hit podcasts as well, Sugar Calling and Dear Sugars, which she has co-hosted with Steve Almond. 

How did she become an advice columnist?

According to the synopsis on GoodReads for Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed has been working as a columnist for over a decade. Thousands of people sought advice from Dear Sugar, which originally started as an online column at The Rumpus. Her friend Steve Almond originally had the title of Dear Sugar but eventually gave heed to an actual female voice in 2010. Cheryl Strayed wrote for the column for two years and signed off months before her collection Tiny Beautiful Things was published.

What is Dear Sugar?

If you haven’t heard of the column or have read Tiny Beautiful Things, Dear Sugar is an anonymous advice columnist. It is a more realistic and honest column in comparison to Dear Abby. Cheryl Strayed revealed herself as the voice behind Dear Sugar and was grounded in her letters and responses to those who had trouble coming to terms with certain things. For those who have written deeply personal letters about their trauma and difficulties in their lives, Dear Sugar was considered a haven. 

What these anonymous letters proved is that people have a very difficult time making decisions. Do not let anyone fool you. There are massive decisions that need to be made in one’s life and almost all of them can be life-altering. The passages that Strayed shares in this collection all explore the deep pain people feel when detaching from the familiar. Of course, no one likes change but it’s almost necessary for some. What Sugar does in this collection simply offers the truth about the situation. The person who writes their thoughts and feelings down already knows the answer to the spiral of a letter. They just want reassurance and maybe a different answer to how they’re feeling. 

Is Tiny BEAUTIFUL tHINGS ON hULU WORTH WATCHING?

The reason why Tiny Beautiful Things is worth watching is that there is plenty of advice for everyone to take into account. It is a heavy emotional series that feels cathartic. Even if you don’t connect with Clare and what she has been through, some stories will. Clare’s advice, or rather Strayed’s, is highly effective, and her words will stick with you long after you’ve watched it. It’s more so what’s being said and how it’s shown episodically within the fragments of Clare’s memory than a structured, well-rounded television series. Kathryn Hahn gives another incredible performance. And carries all eight episodes on her shoulders. There is one overarching thread, but the series breaks down that life doesn’t have one main story but tiny, beautiful things that can make up one’s life story.

How Does the series compare to the book?

The book is structured differently than the series, and the story unravels differently from Strayed’s experiences. It is loosely adapted from the book because many letters were sent to Sugar. First, we meet Clare Pierce (Kathryn Hahn), who is at a standstill in her life. She has been kicked out of her home because of “financial infidelity” involving money given to her estranged brother without discussing that with her husband, Danny (Quentin Plair). This triggers past emotional trauma that Clare experienced when her mother died of cancer when she was in college. The flashbacks were integrated quite well because it was important to show young Clare (Sarah Pidgeon) going through those tiny moments that affected her later in life. 

The series does dip into a melodrama at times because there were too many terrible things that happened to Clare and her family at once. However, the abundance of familial issues does give viewers a full scope of many life experiences that one can relate to. The letters that Clare receives from people put her life into perspective as she begins to psychoanalyze her position in everyone’s life and how detached she has been. At times the stories from the letters didn’t mesh well with what was presently happening to Clare until she explained the thread of her thoughts. It shows how human connection can be built over the smallest situations or under certain conditions. Not only is Clare trying to understand her life, but she also sees a lot of herself in her daughter, who is going through massive life changes.

What did you think about Tiny Beautiful Things? Let me know in the comments below and come join the discord for more discussions!