THIS IS HAPPINESS

by Niall Williams

It seems December and January have been my months to read Irish authors. Thinking about the books, however, I realized that as large and exuberant as I found The Bee Sting to be in terms of character, plotline and themes, This Is Happiness is quiet and subtle. But in some ways, This Is Happiness may end up staying with me for even longer than The Bee Sting.  It is a perfectly gorgeous read.

Set in Faha, a remote village in the western corner of Ireland where the biggest thing to happen in a long time is the imminent arrival of electricity, we follow Noel Crowe, a 17-year-old, who has come to live with his grandparents for the summer after the death of his mother.  Squeaky clean and charmingly unsophisticated, we witness Noel’s coming-of-age over the course of the summer.  He experiences “love” for the first time (actually three times), wrestles with his Catholic upbringing and tries to make sense of a world without his mother. But it is his friendship with Christy, a man who also has come to stay with Noel’s grandparents, that really makes the novel shine.  Christy, outwardly dapper with a real joie de vivre, has come to Faha on a quest for forgiveness from the love of his life, whom he left at the altar 50 years earlier.  It is Noel’s dawning understanding of Christy’s story, along with the realization of how the installation of electricity will affect Faha and his grandparents, that ultimately brings Noel closer to adulthood.

This Is Happiness is beautifully written with the distinctive twist that it is told from Noel’s perspective, 70 years after the fact. Although initially the novel may seem like a small story about a small town, Williams’ book addresses so much more. What does mature love really look like? What enables a community to care about one another? And, perhaps most important, how much control do we have over our own happiness?  This in a novel not to be missed. (Liz)