The Winding Road to a Good Book
Two years ago I read a book that immediately jumped into my top five books of all time: Niall Williams’ This is Happiness.
Harking back to a simpler time, This Is Happiness is a tender portrait of a community – its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs – and a coming-of-age tale like no other. Luminous and lyrical, yet anchored by roots running deep into the earthy and everyday, it is about the power of stories: their invisible currents that run through all we do, writing and rewriting us, and the transforming light that they throw onto our world.
I quickly fell in love with the village of Faha as it existed on the cusp of receiving electricity. In the protagonist, Noel Crowe, we encounter one of the most enchanting coming of age stories around. And in Christy, a man who enters the scene with much to atone for, Williams gives us a unique and lovely character.
I loved the book so much, my daughter Lucy painted me a beautiful piece of art with the following quote:
“It was a condensed explanation, but I came to understand him to mean you could stop at, not all, but most of the moments of your life, stop for one heartbeat and, no matter what the state of your head or heart, say This is happiness, because of the simple truth that you were alive to say it.”
Micha Boyett and her husband Chris came to our bookstore for an event highlighting Micha’s new book, Blessed Are the Rest Of Us. We quietly looked around the bookstore before anyone else arrived, pulling out books we loved, asking each other what we’ve read recently, asking for recommendations.
When I talked about This is Happiness with Chris, telling him how much I loved Irish writers, he said, “Well, if you love Irish writers, you have to read The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.”
“Really?” I asked. I’d heard of The Bee Sting, though it had never solidified itself on my to-read list. So we ordered it for the store, and soon after it arrived, I started reading it.
Wow. Think Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch or A Secret History meets Diaz’s Trust. Successive, multiple perspectives that add to each other, with characters who alternately endear you to them and then drive you nuts.
I haven’t finished it yet, so no spoilers please, but it’s the kind of book I have to bring home from the store because I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen.
Do you find yourself gravitating towards writers from certain places?
I went to Ireland for a week-long writing workshop at Kylemore Abbey so I am all in on Irish authors! I highly recommend Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane - it's a novel written in a memoir format - so good. Also anything by Claire Keegan - her short story Small Things Like These is being made into a movie. Thank you for all your wonderful book suggestions!
I seem to like writers who are English or have English roots (Kazuo Ishiguro, for instance) and I also have an affinity for Irish writers. Have you read Claire Keegan? Her novella Small Things Like These is quiet and powerful, best read in one or two sittings (which I messed up on so don't want others to make that mistake!).