Summary

In the introduction, “I Was Sugar Once: Lessons in Radical Empathy,” when Steve Almond’s friend Stephen Elliott came up with the idea for The Rumpus, Steve began writing the advice column Dear Sugar.

When Cheryl Strayed became Sugar, she betrayed the “unspoken code” of advice columnists (5). What Sugar offers is “radical empathy” (6). Sugar absorbs her writers’ stories, lets them “inhabit her,” and offers stories “from her own life” (7).

In Part I, “It Was Always Only Us,” Strayed answers questions about the book, publishing the letters she received, and advice she likes to give.

In “Like an Iron Bell,” Johnny tells Sugar he is unsure what love means and afraid of saying “I love you” to his girlfriend (14).

Sugar tells Johnny the last word her mother said to her was love (14), and the word still clangs inside her “like an iron...