The Sad Truth about Happiness by Anne Giardini

Reviews have called this work "over written" and "deeply flawed," but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps, more note worthy is the fact that I want to discuss it with someone.

For example, why did the author decide not to mention Philip in Maggie's life once he leaves her care? Did Charles really leave her that house? Did Lucy ever talk to her again? Again, what about Philip??

And her analysis of the state of happiness is intriguing. Is it merely chemical like Janet; is it an emotional state; it is something that comes to you rather than something to be pursued? Here is an excerpt, basically the end of Maggie as narrator, as she describes her happiness:

Happiness is more ephemeral than thought. It can't be observed without changing its nature. Its ingredients are subtle, and there is no guarantee that a formula or recipe for joy can be written out or passed on or repeated even once again. Happiness evades capture, dissolving like a melody into the air, eluding even the most delicate, careful grasp. It frustrates any systemic search, responding better to random fossicking and oblique approaches and its rewards are infuriatingly arbitrary, stingy or abundant by purest chance...

...We work it out, how to be happy, but sooner or later comes a change -- sometimes something small, sometimes everything at once -- and we have to start over again, feeling our way back to a provisional state of contentment.

I used to float along in all of this, like a leaf on a coursing stream, but I am heavier now, less easily moved, more resolute and steadfast. I am no longer in pursuit of happiness. As I stand here at my front door, key in hand, I think it is just possible that happiness, at least for now, today, this hour may be in pursuit of me.

Another aspect that I loved about this book is Maggie's reference to other authors. Like my own degree, mostly male authors were studied. Maggie gets a "second degree" by reading the following (the authors in italics are those who I haven't read): Mary Shelley, the Brontes, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Drabble, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Doris Lessing, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Nadine Gordimer, Jane Smiley, Amy Clampitt, Carol Shields, Barbara Kingsolver, A.S. Byatt, Annie Proulx, Muriel Spark. I have a new reading list!

Sad Truth about Happiness by Anne Giardini

Finally, a book has grabbed my interest. I've tried a number of titles, but nothing has been compelling until now. I've been so desperate for a good read that I was reading Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie again.

Once again, I'm reading a book that describes the relationship between 3 sisters. While Flavia was the precocious youngest, Maggie is the calm, perfect middle child.

Here is the publishers blurb:
MAGGIE IS 31 YEARS OLD, single and solvent. As the perfect middle child of eccentric parents, Maggie has allowed herself to become a cool observer rather than an engaged participant in her own life. Only when she accepts her roommate Rebecca’s invitation to complete a magazine quiz does Maggie’s outlook begin to change. She answers the question “Are you happy?” with “no,” a response that threatens to shave decades off her life. In fact, the quiz predicts that Maggie has only three months to live.

Maggie’s sisters—stormy Lucy, who has just returned from Rome pregnant and unmarried, and self-absorbed Janet, who has found contentment in a single daily pill—distract Maggie from seeking her own measure of happiness. But when it appears that Lucy will lose custody of her newborn child, Maggie is forced into action. On the road with baby Philip, Maggie is helped by a succession of women who speed her, like a heroine on an old-fashioned quest, on her way. Is Maggie’s journey the route to happiness, or is happiness simply too mysterious, too elusive to lend itself to capture?

Anne Giardini has intuitive storytelling ability, an affinity for the interior voice and a warm affection for her fallible, lovable characters. The Sad Truth About Happiness is a witty and deeply felt novel that explores the vexing problems of family, love, work, friendship, loyalty, the ingredients of happiness and sorrow, and our purpose and role in the world.