This Is Happiness

My travels with Road Scholar have proven to be a reliable way to learn about worthwhile books. This Is Happiness (2019) is the latest example of an exceptional novel that otherwise might have slipped by me if one of my Road Scholar companions in Africa hadn't recommended it. Not only was I intrigued because author Niall Williams was unfamiliar to me, the more my companion described authors, novels, and short stories he admired, the more certain I felt I could trust his instincts. I didn't have to wait long when reading This Is Happiness to know I was in capable hands. 

"I sometimes think the worst thing a young person can feel is when you can find no answer to the question of what you are supposed to do with this life you've been given." When a sentence grabs me at page thirteen (of 380), I'm all in. "I'm at an age now when in the early mornings I'm often revisited by my own mistakes, stupidities, and unintended cruelties. They sit around the edge of the bed and look at me and say nothing. But I see them well enough." With a narrator able to see himself that clearly, it didn't matter to me that this was going to be another coming-of-age story. It was apparent from that second passage - also early in the book - the wisdom here would be well earned.

Although I raced through This Is Happiness, I don't recommend you do. Savor it. Enjoy the characters and the humor - "...but for the muffled artillery of his gas" - track the luminous prose describing the Irish countryside - "...you stood in the revelation of so many stars you could not credit and felt smaller in body as your soul felt enormous" - marvel at the effortless way this gifted author juxtaposes his bildungsroman with a tale of modernity coming to an insular community. Gather gems like this: "In this life, I-could-see-that-coming and I-couldn't-see-that-coming amount to the same thing, because in neither case did you make a difference." And avoid being put off by what sounds like fatalism in that sentence near the conclusion. In context, I promise, those words help deliver the well-earned wisdom in this timeless and beautifully realized story of love, redemption, forgiveness.