| Title | : | Happy All the Time |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0060955325 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780060955328 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published September 12, 1978 |
Happy All the Time Reviews
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Love had to do with flexing your personality to see what it might attract.
I have a couple of friends who have insisted upon dating during this pandemic. I don't know if a determination to meet new, romantic partners during lockdowns, social distancing and the potential spread of contagion is foolhardy or courageous, but I can contribute that these particular dating experiences have certainly been interesting for me, voyeur that I am.
Several good stories have been shared with me, but I think that my favorite, thus far, is one from a dear friend who met an attractive looking man online, then met him out for coffee. Only a few minutes into their first date, they discovered that they had radically different opinions about masks and vaccinations and, from what I can remember, neither one of them ever sat down in a chair before parting in anger.
Dating has always offered us challenges, regardless of our ages, regardless of our backgrounds. We don't come to the table alone; when we go out on a date, we bring our families, our religions, our professions, our appearances, our baggage, too.
So, dating in New York City in the mid-1970s wasn't easy, either, despite the absence of masks and volatile conversations about antibodies and immunity.
But, as I've already mentioned above, I'm a voyeur when it comes to stories, and I could get really schmaltzy here, telling you how much I enjoyed following these characters around, and keeping an eye on them through the open windows.
To be honest. . . it's a novel about nothing, really. Unless you count dating, getting married, getting divorced, having a baby, working and making friendships as something. They're something, right? Oh, wait. They're everything!
I think I could have gone on reading about these couples forever. They never got old for me.
This novel was an excellent reminder for me not to judge someone looking for a new friendship or a new love, even during a loathsome pandemic.
When we are healthy, we seek connections with others. Some say it is our entire reason for being. -
This is the fourth book I’ve read by the wonderful writer Laurie Colwin, who died tragically young – she was only 48 years old – in 1992. Her work, although a little dated, deserves to be discovered by a new generation.
I see I’ve rated all of her books 4 stars. They’re uniformly modest and lovely, but perhaps not life-changing.
Her fictional subject (she also wrote bestselling books about food) tends to be romance in urban settings among middle- and upper-middle-class people. She cherishes happy endings – which perhaps is why the word “happy” figures not just in this book’s title but also in Family Happiness.
I don’t really know how to describe Happy All The Time. Third-cousins Guido Morris and Vincent Cardworthy find themselves drawn to two very different women, Guido to the laconic, spontaneous Holly Sturgis, Vincent to the pessimistic Misty Berkowitz, who’s radically unlike anyone else he’s ever dated.
The book chronicles the couples’ ups and occasional downs in a very idealized, and mostly white, New York City. Holly suddenly packs up and moves to France for months because she finds her life with Guido is becoming too predictable; Misty describes herself as a porcupine, with sharp quills on the outside to protect her soft and vulnerable belly.
There’s more than a touch of fantasy and wish-fulfilment in Colwin’s plots, but she’s sharply observant. If she were a painter, she wouldn’t work on a large canvas, she’d be a miniaturist, capturing shadow and light, the tilt of a head, a still life just so.
There are many laugh-out-loud moments, particularly involving some of the colourful characters on the book’s periphery: a no-fuss office assistant; a spacey academic who’s “completely interior” (i.e., she doesn’t talk much, she feels); an eccentric uncle who made money writing a novelty song; a narcissistic aunt who once starred on a soap opera. Colwin even makes a Greek florist into a memorable figure.
If you enjoy big plot twists and suspense, look elsewhere. Colwin’s books are like a freshly baked croissant served with a carafe of French press coffee on the terrace. Comforting. Delicious. Something to savour and contemplate for a little while. -
Colwin's "project" in this, and the other works of hers I've read, seems to revolve around picking up the story of love where most novelists leave off: she's interested in what happy marriages and established friendships look like. The conflict she's primarily concerned with is the resistance people have to contentment, and their fear of its loss. Happily, the characters struggling with accepting happiness are usually married (literally or figuratively) to characters who have a talent for enjoying what life has given them, and so like in Austen, there's always a process of conversion to love/happiness. This book is not heavy and serious and complex, but it is charming and funny and comforting, and it suggests to its reader that heavy and serious and complex doesn't make for good daily fare. As someone who has wondered whether it's possible to be both intelligent and happy, I appreciated the reminder that sustaining happiness takes its own kind of genius.
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What an absolutely delightful book! It is funny; it is endearing; it is a look at relationships and the insecurities and messiness that go along with them.
This book is all about the people. We meet Guido and Vincent, third cousins and best friends. They are nearing thirty.
“ With their futures somewhat assured, they lolled around Cambridge and wondered whom they would marry.”
Laurie Colwin knows how to write people and relationships. Relationships are not always perfect. They are tough. Nothing is easy when it comes to love- really knowing that person takes time and patience.
I honestly fell in love with our four main characters. Each was unique. I loved watching their relationships grow and change, as couples and as friends. All the peripheral characters were memorable as well.
Vincent definitely stood out for me. He was so positive and happy- actually a lot like my husband:) Here is a bit of advice he gave:
“ Just be married. That’s how you get used to it. Where on earth did you get this sense of profound gloom from, anyway?”
I hated saying goodbye to these two couples. They brought a smile to my face and a joy to my heart.
Many thanks to GR friends Julie Grippo and Suzy, whose reviews introduced me to this author and book. I definitely plan to read more of her books.
Published: 1978 -
My experience reading this novel was really strange. When I was a senior in high school, I read a short story called "An Old Fashioned Romance" by Colwin in my AP class. I remember being struck, and a little disappointed, by how bright and optimistic the story was - up to that point, I'd understood stories as ominous and never happy. Then I read her author bio and it said that she graduated from Bard in the 70s and, I of course, was going to attend Bard that summer. Long story short, I was always struck by the title "Happy All The Time" and intended to read this novel, but never got the chance. Then a week ago, I was at the Strand and when I turned around, while looking for another book, I found the Laurie Colwin section. I don't know if I was just swept up in the moment and the coincidence, but I just really loved this novel. I don't think I've smiled so much and thought to myself, "God I wish I'd written that line" so frequently in the span of one book. There's not much plot, and the writing is kind of like a 1980s Jane Austen set in Manhattan, but there's something about this book that just entranced me. I've also never read someone so accurately describe what it feels like to fall in love.
I don't know - this isn't the type of book that I'd normally read, and I don't think I'll read any of her other novels (though I want to read her "Home Cooking" essay collections) because I'm not sure what I felt for this book will carry over into those. Or maybe it will. But I just don't want to find out. I do know, though, that regardless of this weird, seven year old preoccupation I had with lazily trying to locate "Happy All The Time," I finally did, and for 230 pages, I was just what the title promised. -
So happy I picked this up again! I love all the attention Colwin is getting with the re-publication of all ten of her books in 2021. It's been nine years since I last read Happy All the Time. This time I noticed the narrowness of the milieu in which she writes (domestic dramas about fairly well-off New Yorkers), but that didn't stop me from enjoying it all over again. I always wonder how her writing would have evolved if she hadn't died at 48 in 1992.
This is a
wonderful NY Times Book Review essay at the release of her 10 novels in 2021, including this great photo from 1974.
Why I'm rereading this: I need a happy book, and this one has always fit the bill. Third time around for me - I love Laurie Colwin!
Pure delight! The story of two friends, Guido and Vincent, who live and work in New York City. They find love, marry (Holly and Misty, respectively) and experience the hopes, dreams, anxieties and challenges associated with moving into adulthood. That sounds sort of boring, but this book is anything but. As one reviewer said, this book takes up where most love stories leave off - at the settling in and finding contentment stage. Touching, quirky and funny, it made me happy!!
This is the second time I've read Happy All the Time. Written in 1978, its themes are both universal and specific to the place, time and these four people. I love
Laurie Colwin! Time to re-read her other works. -
This little novel is, by far, the happiest, most delightful little gem you will ever read. I originally read it in the late 1970's when it was written. I always remembered that I loved it, but had long forgotten the story and its characters. I requested that my library find a copy for me. Luckily, they rounded one up from several counties away! I am smiling like a fool, having just now finished it again. There is no other novel I have ever read, and I believe I have read thousands in 60+ years of life, (not that I was yet able to read 60 years ago) that has left me beaming like an idiot. Colwin, who sadly died years ago at a young age, was such a gifted writer. Her characters are so well drawn, so real, so lovable even with their flaws, that I wish I could be part of their inner circle and beautiful friendships.
Guido and Vincent, third cousins and best friends, are two good, decent, smart, witty guys who fall, in turn, for 2 quirky, resistant, but kindhearted women. Each couple finds their way to a good life together. The cousins and their wives are friends and share so much, but also hold back. Guido's lovely wife, Holly, finds the need to withdraw from time to time, whether to Paris to be alone for a few weeks, or to a monastery to regroup for a bit, before heading back to a busy life in NYC to embrace her married life once again. And Vincent, the son of wealthy New Englanders, has to be the nicest of them all. He pursues and wins the heart of the very reluctant Misty, a Jewish girl who was also raised with great comfort, but who seems to take on the weight of the world, worrying about things which might happen, but which never do. Through Vincent, Misty learns to trust in love and to be...well, HAPPY!
The couples, with some very interesting and funny cousins who come along to join the fray, delight in life as young adults in a world that is just now becoming a part of history. The mid-t0-late 1970's were modern days (relative to the length of civilization) and yet there were no cell phones, no texting, no internet. They left each other notes, used pay phones, and couldn't be so terribly connected all the time, which can be a downside, for sure, to relationships in society these days. They heated milk on the stove to add to coffee to warm it up, because there were no microwave ovens in every apartment in NYC the way there are today. There was talk of this tool called a "calculator" and of recycling and reusing sludge to power a lawn mover, which I thought was very modern for that era. But mostly, there is talk, and laughter, and love which embraces you and makes YOU feel loved. Find a copy of this book. Hang onto it for 30 years and then re-read it. I wish I had kept my original copy. I can still picture its cover and feel its smoothness, but I must have loaned it to someone decades ago and never got it back. Keep this little gem as the antidote to all that ails or saddens you! It deserves 10 stars. I am STILL beaming and feel like skipping around the room from the joy in my heart. Thanks to Laurie Colwin for leaving this treasure behind. The world lost a great writer with her death! -
I love beautiful things. I love stories told stylishly. This is a charming, intelligent and superbly witty book about intelligent and stylish characters. I got it through Prime reading, but I’ll probably end up buying it just to make sure I have my own copy available, for whenever I feel like rereading it.
Loved it, pure and simple. First of all, Colwin has the gift or writing about serious deep stuff in a lighthearted manner. She is also a master at describing her characters without judging and without boring you, the reader, with tons of useless background information. Her collection of secondary characters is described with minimum words for maximum impact and all of them seem alive and perfectly real, even if not realistic.
It’s not a novel about a NY that once existed. Because I somewhat doubt it actually existed as described by Colwin. The story is about a narrow slice of NY-ers - quite financially secure, but also intellectual and very educated, who spend a lot of time having discussions about non-mundane stuff in a very entertaining and elevated manner.
The story is centered on two friends and their love interests. It’s not a romance, not in a classical sense, but it’s a story about love and friendship and all that good stuff that matters. -
Charming. A Seinfeld episode set in the 70's. Read this book!
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Last month Old school librarian suggested I read HAPPY ALL THE TIME by
Laurie Colwin. I had not heard of the book or the author before and was very interested to discover what was in store. Fortunately, my local library had a copy readily available. Originally published back in 1978, HAPPY ALL THE TIME was the third of Colwin's five novels. Along with a few short story and cooking collections, those novels made up the bulk of her writing. It seems strange now that I'd never heard of her before as her novels have none of them ever gone out of print and it appears she still has quite a large and devoted following. A fact I completely understand and that makes me quite happy now, having read this perfectly delightful novel. Thank goodness for others' book recommendations, for I am quite sure I would never have stumbled across this treat of a book on my own.
Guido Morris. Holly Sturgis. Vincent Cardworthy. Misty Berkowitz. These are the rather enchanting names of the four principal players in our little drama. Guido and Vincent have been cousins and best friends since as far back as either of them can remember. Gifted with both privilege and personality, talent and wit, the two men have somehow managed to make it past graduate school and into bona fide adulthood without ever forming permanent or lasting attachments with members of the opposite sex. But all of that is about to change when they walk past a young woman with black hair and a composed face, sitting on a bench, and Guido falls instantly and madly in love. But Holly is not looking for love and Guido finds himself in the unfamiliar agony of being in love with someone who appears all but indifferent to him. Meanwhile, Vincent is coming to terms with his scattered and perplexing love life the hard way. Unsure of how to change things, he walks into the office one day and meets Misty Berkowitz, a cantankerous young woman of Jewish extraction who loathes and distrusts everything Vincent represents. And--just like Guido--Vincent is gone in one fell swoop. But like the lovely Holly (even though the two women are night and day incarnate), Misty has no interest in being wooed. What are these two earnest young men to do in order to convince the loves of their lives that they are, in fact, meant for each other?
Readers, I was utterly charmed by this book. It is a slim, unassuming volume to be sure. But within its pages is true loveliness. HAPPY ALL THE TIME reads like Annie Hall and one of those old Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn confections had a lovechild. There was just no way I was escaping its spell. The emotions are high and fraught with meaning, the witty banter is sophisticated in the extreme, and the costumes are elegant and timeless. Here's one of my favorite interactions between the likable Vincent and the irascible Misty:Misty woke abruptly and felt awful. She groped around for her glasses, couldn't find them, and sat very still, looking unfocused and bereft, as if she had awakened from a kind dream to find merciless and cruel reality waiting for her. Vincent thought he understood unhappiness, but he was not sure if this was it. He sat beside her and took her hand.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he said. "I can't bear to see you this way."
She shrugged her shoulders.
Vincent asked, "Does it help if I tell you I love you, or does it make it worse?"
She began to cry. It was the second time in two days, but its effect on Vincent was not dimmed by repetition.
"Okay," she said. "Here goes."
His heart seemed to stop. This was it, but what was it?
"It's not what you're thinking," said Misty, looking at his stricken face. "It's worse. You're stuck with me. This is your last chance to bail out, Vincent. I don't think we were made for each other. Maybe you were made for me, but I was made for Attila the Hun."
"Are you telling me that life with you will be a living hell?"
"I am giving you one last chance to go off and find some nicer girl," said Misty. "Someone who knows her way around a sailboat."
"That's a disgusting thing to say. Last week you gave me a very compelling analysis on the workings of my stunning intellect. Now I'm supposed to take my intellect off and go sailing?"
And besides that, there's the Jewish question," said Misty.
"Oh, that," said Vincent. "I don't notice either of us being religious. Besides, my Aunt Marcia is Jewish. She married Uncle Walter. She's everybody's favorite relative. What's the big deal?"
"Our backgrounds are different," said Misty.
"This is not worth discussing," said Vincent. "We've done very well up till now, and we'll continue to do well."
"I'm not like your other flames," said Misty. "I don't know anything about dog breeding."
"Yes, you do," said Vincent. "The night we were comparing eccentric relatives, you told me that your Aunt Harriet wanted to cross Welsh corgis and Doberman pinschers and get a vicious but barkless guard dog for sneak attacks. That will be quite sufficient. Throw in my Aunt Marcia and you can see that we are ideally suited."
Tears slid out of the corners of Misty's eyes. She put her arms around his neck.
"I'm just scared," she said. "That's all."
"That isn't all," said Vincent. "What are you scared of?"
"I don't know."
"What else don't you know?"
That's all," said Misty.
"I assume that means that you have given a good deal of analytical thought to your feelings about me."
"My feelings about you appear to transcend analysis."
"Wonderful," said Vincent. "What are they?"
"I just love you," she mumbled.
"Speak up, please," said Vincent.
"I said, I just love you. Isn't that banal?"
"What a relief," said Vincent, smiling.
Well? Don't you want to go and find this book right now? I love Vincent and Misty so much. All four of them are memorable and layered and funny and offbeat, but I ended up responding most of all to Misty. Must be that inherent awkwardness and the tendency to analyze the people around me in my head, rather than going up and talking to them that we share. Either way, Misty is a kindred spirit and I sat there rapt as she worked through her feelings and came to grips with the fact that she loved someone who appeared to be so wrong for her, someone who--deep down--she felt rather sure would up and walk away someday when he woke up and realized just who he'd married. In this book, it's not about what happens in the end, it's about how they each get there. And it's worth it, I tell you. It's light and lighthearted, told in elegant, if occasionally fussy prose, and it will lift your heart and leave you perfectly sated. -
Un libro perfecto. Amistad, amor, celos, inseguridad. Todo relatado sin drama y en profundidad.
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When I picked up my copy of Happy All the Time and saw the sad girl peeling pears on the cover, I was like, "Here we go. Time to delve into the depressing inner lives of searching young adults." Having just finished a few Lorrie Moore stories from Birds of America, I was sure that the title of Colwin's novel was ironic.
IT SURE ISN'T!
Two couples meet cute, quip, and live happily ever after. Seriously.
I'm not immune to a charming narrative like this. The conversational wit sparkles on the page with a warmth that Dorothy Parker lacks. I was incredibly fond of grumpy Misty Berkowitz, who reveals herself to be hardened by life, but a big ole softy at heart. You don't want her hard-earned trust and vulnerability to be rewarded by unhappiness, and yay, it isn't. And her husband, Vincent Cardworthy, is nothing short of adorable—to the point where I read nearly all of his lines to my fiancé until he exclaimed "NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT!"
And maybe that's the problem. No one talks like this. No one lives like this. No one loves like this (and this is coming from the perspective of a swooning bride-to-be). Is it possible to be happy with a novel that is happy all the time?
Oh, forget it. I'd be a grinch if I pretended not to enjoy such a witty, quirky, happy book. But be warned: this book is candy. Sour candy, maybe, but it's still all sugar, and one shouldn't have too much of it. -
Repleto de líneas brillantes, diálogos dinámicos, personajes completamente fascinantes dada su complejidad y un estilo que conjuga a la perfección sobriedad y sensibilidad literaria, Tantos días felices es una obra realmente sorprendente e imbuida de una personalidad desbordante. No se trata de una historia vertiginosa ni lacrimógena; al contrario, no puede ser más cotidiana, anticlimática y argumentalmente austera. Además, resulta extraño el mensaje optimista que transmite, dadas las circunstancias más o menos melodramáticas del relato. Sin embargo, la síntesis de todos esos elementos que, en manos de cualquier otro escritor, sencillamente no cuajarían, produce como resultado en el caso de Laurie Colwin una obra muy recomendable y refrescante que la editorial Libros del Asteroide ha querido reivindicar en nuestro país. La decisión, desde luego, no ha podido ser más acertada.
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While I could have finished this had I soldiered on, I gave myself permission to abandon it. Life is too short to sludge through books you don't enjoy.
I don't know if it was someone else's comment that this book reminded them of a mix between The Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany's or just the vagaries of my own mind, but I kept thinking Happy All the Time was set somewhere in the 1920's to 1940's time period. Then, as I was reading, a comment about computers or something would remind me it was written and set in the late 1970's and I'd get all confuzzled. On top of that, I didn't like or understand any of the characters or their motivations.
Meh. Not for me. -
I first read this book a few months after I had a stillborn baby and was struggling with depression and the grief. The title of the book drew me in because I was so desperately unhappy at the time. I loved this book and the fact of my introduction to Laurie Colwin. I devoured each of her books as they were published, including Home Cooking. My favorite is probably Shine On Bright And Dangerous Object. I remember specifically where I was when I learned she had died. I felt like I had just lost a life-long friend and still miss her writing. She had a true impact on me.
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I’m so happy that this charming, insightful, and absolutely delightful novel has been reissued. Laurie Colwin was a brilliant writer and I only wish she’d had many more years and many more books.
Thank you to Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. -
This warm, clever, romantic and smart little novel was a delight. I somehow missed Laurie Colwin and will forever be grateful to @kimberleyallsopp for introducing me to her. She’s Katherine Heiny’s favourite writer and I can see why. What a wonderful little novel of wit, delight and joy.
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If Laurie Colwin was actually her own image of Misty, then I'm sadder than ever that she's dead.
I can see people with a fierce desire for "plot" and "story" having a hard time with this, but the writing itself is so swift and good that I personally don't care. The point is not to complete some grand story; the point is that the story ("story") is continual and pervasive, happening and happening and happening. In some ways, this reads like a theatrical piece, with characters grouped into pairs or threes strategically from scene to scene. However, again, I think this is part of the point of the book: people group and regroup, and their conversations, actions, and reactions push forward and forward.
I have a few nitpicks. 1. The concept of money has close to no bearing on any of the characters, which I find less than believable even if they're part of a rich NYC population/mindset. 2. Characters seem defined by their roles more than is comfortable. On the other hand, the point of at least one character is to be a cipher to another, so--yeah, ok. 3. The relationship concepts of the 1970s don't match mine; this is jarring (especially in the otherwise fairly contemporary setting) though it is also clearly my own problem.
It's a pretty solid 3.5, if we're going by numbers. -
Utterly brilliant; a joy from first page to last. What a genius Laurie Colwin was to write a book about four people falling in love and just being happy (no big dramas here) and to make that not only compelling but full of wisdom and wit. The comparisons to Jane Austen are both apt and wholly deserved.
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This book is funny in a grown-up way. I can't decide if I should cheer or die of envy.
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If you want NY life-style porn, great characters and incisive insights into relationships, but don’t want the auteur to be a creepy pervert like Woody Allen, then this book is for you.
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My first Laurie Colwin, and it won't be the last. Exactly what I needed following my recent exceptional yet grim-ish reads. I feel sad to be leaving the lives of Guido & Holly, and Vincent & Misty.
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I enjoyed reading this novel from the late 1970s that follows 2 lifelong friends/cousins as they find romance and enter into early years of marriage. It flows easily, has many humorous moments -- good writing that left me wanting more stories about the two couples.
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A thoughtful, surprising, genuine and touching story about four people who fall in love. Guido and Vincent are cousins and best friends. Guido falls for Holly and Vincent falls for Misty. So, not only is romantic love developing but the connected friendships need to develop, too, if they are going to be four pals rather than two friends and their awkwardly tolerated spouses.
What I appreciated about this story is that there are no huge disasters or tragedies. That doesn't mean that the characters are "happy all the time"--there is angst--worry and fear and doubt... but it's all pretty much self-imposed. And I think that rings so true to life--often times, we pin burdens on ourselves, sometimes unnecessarily, sometimes because we know that working through that will lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
***minor spoilers***
The message I took away from the story is: when you love someone, you have to allow them to love you back. You can't keep second-guessing, wondering *why* they love you, if you are good enough for them, if they will find someone they like better, etc. This is seen in the story of Vincent and Misty. Misty is the classic "glass is half empty" and waiting for something to go wrong; Vincent is an eternal optimist and floats through life with a smile. Misty worries that she is all wrong for Vincent (even though he clearly loves her) and she fears he will eventually want someone more like him. Another "message" in the story is that you cannot really define love, that if you try to, you'll miss the essence completely. This is seen in story of Guido and Holly; he loves her so much, but she is elusive to him in some ways--he sometimes can't understand her, wants to understand her, and fears that this lack of understanding is a flaw in their relationship; until he learns that he was trying to understand her from his own way of looking at things, rather than trying to see things through her eyes. And that he doesn't have to understand her perfectly in any sort of quantifiable terms in order to love her.
Ultimately, this book wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I wanted a cozy, snuggle-up-with-hot-chocolate sort of read. The sort of story where, from page one, you feel all snug and secure and know that there will be sunshine and radiance everywhere. Maybe I was just reading the story with a "Misty" view, rather than a "Vincent" one, because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and squish away a happy ending. But, even though I didn't get a breezy, musical-comedy PG Wodehouseian sort of comfort read, I am still very glad I read this. I appreciated the thoughtful look at humanity, at love and friendship, and at what it takes to live our life so that we can be "happy all the time" (or, at least, most of it!) -
There are some writers who are good enough to disregard plot in favor of a collection of quirky characters slinging each other with cute conversation. See also: Laurie Colwin, whose 1978 novel Happy All the Time is simply the story of third cousins tip-toeing from bachelorhood to couplehood and the difficult targets who change everything they believe to be true about women. What, in theory, could reek of a banter-y rom-com with a “Gilmore Girls” preciousness is smart and lively and potentially something that might have inspired the writer Charles Baxter -- the last person I decided could write whatever the hell he wanted.
Guido is a romantic, tapped to run the family’s nonprofit arts organization. He meets Holly outside of a museum and goes gaga for her in the least subtle way, describing her for Vincent as though she was a piece from one of the collections inside. She doesn’t find this cute. They continue to cross paths and eventually she agrees to go out with him. Holly is light on emoting and poor Guido never really knows where he stands with her. When he asks her to marry him, she goes away for a week to remove herself from the situation and gain some perspective. Though she promises to return to him, he ends up wandering around sullen with a stained aura.
Vincent is slower to find a life partner and instead has a series of not-so serious relationships with unavailable women, hearty women, women who love horses. He meets Misty while working at a think tank: him in garbage, her in linguistics. Her only romantic experience has left her soul scabbed over and he is forced to take a friends first approach and woo her first slowly, then suddenly. Like Holly, she eventually cracks.
On the sidelines are a slew of caricatures including a super efficient secretary and a hippie, vibe-feeling fill-in secretary, uncles and aunts with colorful pasts, a vegetarian dancer, and another cousin who gives Misty a bit of a core shake.
Colwin’s strength is bursts of hilarious dialoge. When Vincent buys flowers for Misty, he says to the seller: “Give me something that looks like the thing they hang on prize-winning horses.” During another scene the crew is dining at a vegetarian-friendly restaurant and Vincent says, holding up a vegetable punctured with holes, “Do you eat this or did it fall off someone’s shoe?”
Storywise, you get something akin to watching Sims characters wander between home and work and dinner parties. It’s very light on conflict and there is a sense that all will end well. Instead of dips and valleys there are a series of speed bumps one’s tail bone would barely even register. Still, it feels so good to read it, even if it does trap your face in dopey grin mode. -
This is the book that Jane Austen would have written if she had lived in NYC in the 1970's. Having said that, if you had described it that way to me before I read it, I would have thought that I would love it. Not so much...
This reminded me a bit of When Harry Met Sally... but not nearly as entertaining. It's certainly well written, but there's just something about it that left me bored and really not interested in these characters. As someone else on GR put it, I felt like I really couldn't relate to them very well with their cigar smoking, champagne dinners, and the fact that they spoke as if they were just trying too hard to be real people, when, in fact, they felt very artificial.
I'm kind of surprised that this was never made into a movie because even though much of it is made up of omniscient narration, it seems like it would've made a fairly decent screenplay. I could see it being filmed in that gauzy 70's style, with music by Carly Simon and/or James Taylor. The soundtrack might've even been a chart topper. -
How is it that I have not reviewed this book before now? For many years, it was a tradition that for the first book of the new year, I would read "Happy All The Time." This story of two couples is so light-filled and nuanced and clever -- I simply take great pleasure in reading it and enjoy being reminded that life can be quite lovely, indeed. Laurie Colwin has a dry (and subtle wicked wit), which is what gives this novel its depth. Yes, the world portrayed in this book is sheltered, but sometimes a reader needs to take shelter. So Guido and Holly, Vincent and Misty, thank you for getting my 2012 off to a terrific start!
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The happiest little book I’ve read in a long time.
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(3.5 stars)
Guido and Vincent are second cousins and best friends who were raised together as children. As adults, Guido heads up his family’s charitable foundation, and Vincent is a sanitation expert who works for the Board of City Planning. Happy All the Time follows the pair through their late twenties and early thirties, as they both juggle their careers with the courtship of and eventual marriages to their respective love interests.
Guido falls in love first, with Holly, a brusque, impeccably neat and organized, intellectual and ardent hobbyist. (I say “hobbyist” because it doesn’t seem like she has an actual job or career?) They engage in a relatively short courtship and are quickly married.
Three years later, Vincent meets a coworker, Mindy, who is a misanthropic curmudgeonly and stubbornly independent linguist. Their courtship is a bit longer, but eventually they marry as well.
And the two couples both lived . . . somewhat . . . “happily” ever after.
That’s it. That’s the whole story.
At a lean 173 pages, Happy All the Time is more novella than novel. It’s a pleasant enough, if not necessarily, thrilling read. Nothing particularly bad or noteworthy happens to Guido or Vincent, apart from their love interests occasionally being emotionally withholding, and keeping them at arms-length.
The main and side characters of this tale are all fairly stock and sitcom-esque, their personalities each comprising one or two exaggerated traits a piece. Their conversations with one another are clever, quippy, and occasionally humorous.
Happy All the Time was written in the late 70’s. But it holds up fairly well, as a light. G-rated, rom com (all the sex scenes are of the fate-to-black variety). There are few noticeable differences between this story and modern day romances, apart from a readily apparent lack of cell phones, computers, social media, etc.
I guess when the novel was written, the fact that the female characters, Holly and Misty (both of whom exhibited avoidant attachment style) were depicted as more independent and skeptical of marriage / monogamy than their ardent, anxiously attached, male counterparts, was viewed as more “groundbreaking” and “subversive” than it would be considered now? Maybe?
Occasionally, during the novel, Colwin would ruminate on human nature and relationships, in a way that I found thoughtful and insightful. Below is probably my favorite passage the novel regarding one of its couples:
“Living with Vincent made Misty realize that she had spent a good deal of her life ready to ward off some terrible low blow. She did not believe that most people were decent or kind. She had never believed that life went along smoothly. She did not believe that life left you alone to be happy in the world. Vincent believed all of these things. He thought that his happy vistas and Misty’s grim vision fused into one full-balanced picture of the world.”
As might be apparent from the above, I enjoyed and appreciated the mild mannered and sweet, if occasionally dense playboy-turned-lovesick puppy, Vincent. And I found the grumpy, standoffish, generally rude Misty to be amusing to experience on the page, if not necessarily someone with whom I would actually want to spend time. The portions of the book that focused on their relationship were my favorite parts of the story. In fact, I believe that if the book focused on them entirely, I suspect this may have risen to the level of a four-star read for me.
Unfortunately, I found the needy cloying, possessive, judgmental and self-righteous Guido to be a bore, and the snobbish, flippant, effete “I like to take occasional extended breaks from my marriage whenever it suits me” Holly to be kind of an irredeemable ass. I didn’t care much for their love story, and wasn’t particularly rooting for them to end up with one another.
The supporting cast of Happy All the Time didn’t fare much better for me. Most of Vincent and Guido's friends, family members, and colleagues ranged from unmemorable to insufferable with few falling in between the two extremes.
Holly, Guido and friends character gripes aside, this was a fine story. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it. It was a novel that generally didn’t call to me, while I was doing other things.
The fact that it took me three days to read, despite its short length, probably tells you all you need to know about my general enthusiasm toward this tale.
But, hey it’s the end of the year. So, if you are coming up short on your reading challenge, and are looking for a quick, and, more or less, inoffensive, book to up your read count, you could probably do worse than Happy All the Time.
