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The Sad Truth About Happiness, Anne Giardini
Fourth Estate
Review by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Great title, shame about the content. A glib assessment? Possibly. But the overwhelming feeling I came away with after finishing The Sad Truth About Happiness is that it was a book that had the potential to be so much better.
It had everything going for it; an obviously very talented first-time novelist, an appealing location and a catchy storyline. What, in fact, eventuated was a novel that was often overwritten, (why use 10 words when a hundred will do) where the intense observations about the banal intruded rather than enhanced the story. The plot wandered from its original purpose and it seemed as if the author only realised she was off track near the end and hastily cobbled together a conclusion.
Maggie, a thirty-something mamographer, lives in downtown Vancouver with a flatmate who writes life quizzes (the sort that appear in women's magazines). One day Maggie completes one that is able to determine the exact length of one's life. To her dismay she finds out she has only a few months to live unless, that is, she can change one thing. "Not completely," is her reply when asked "Are you happy?" If she had answered "yes", it was calculated that she would live to be 96.
With this in mind she sets off to find out what happiness is and how she can get some. But she soon forgets all about the quiz as she encounters life and death and is busy dealing with "stuff". She also gets sidetracked frequently because it seems every man she meets asks her for a date.
Despite its irritating moments, the writing is clever and expresses the feelings of the moment succinctly; when being kissed goodnight by a male friend, Maggie dwells that the kiss "placed us in the uncharted territory beyond friendship but not far outside its border." Sharp and observant but, deary me, she does go on about the most ordinary things at times.
A touch of humour now and again would have rounded out the bookish Maggie and made me warm to her a bit more. Things become a bit contrived with her gallivanting around Canada on a crusade, but in the end she shares with the reader what happiness is and how to achieve it. Sort of.