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    Happy All the Time: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Happy All the Time: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Happy All the Time: A Novel
    Ebook255 pages3 hours

    Happy All the Time: A Novel

    By Laurie Colwin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A witty modern-day classic about two unique couples discovering universal truths about love and marriage from “a wise, bighearted writer” (The Washington Post).

    Guido Morris and Vincent Cardworthy are third cousins and best friends. In college they dreamed of writing poetry (Guido) and winning the Nobel Prize in Physics (Vincent). Now in their late twenties, they are together again in Cambridge and on the verge of settling down to more prosaic pursuits. Vincent is headed to New York City to become the Board of City Planning’s expert on garbage, while Guido is preparing to take over the management of his family’s foundation.

    What they really want to know, however, is who their wives will be. Guido gets the first inkling of his romantic future when he spies a girl with the blackest, sleekest hair he has ever seen sitting on a bench at the Fogg Museum. When he tries to flirt with her, Holly Sturgis makes a cutting remark and leaves. For Guido, it is love at first sight.

    Vincent discovers Misty Berkowitz one morning at work. Stirring her coffee with a fountain pen, she tells him to get the hell away from her. Soon, cheerful, open-minded Vincent can’t stop thinking about his bored, misanthropic, and very pretty colleague.

    Guido, Holly, Vincent, and Misty are lucky enough to find love. The question is, are they smart enough to hold on to it? From the terrifying uncertainty of courtship to the dull contentment of marriage, Happy All the Time is a dazzling tribute to the hard work and real courage it takes to create a storybook romance.

    This ebook features an illustrated biography of Laurie Colwin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateNov 18, 2014
    ISBN9781497673755
    Unavailable
    Happy All the Time: A Novel
    Author

    Laurie Colwin

    Laurie Colwin is the author of five novels: Happy All the Time; Family Happiness; Goodbye Without Leaving; Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object; and A Big Storm Knocked It Over; three collections of short stories: Passion and Affect, Another Marvelous Thing, and The Lone Pilgrim; and two collections of essays: Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. She died in 1992.

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    Reviews for Happy All the Time

    4/5

    9 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Fun, witty, and optimistic!
    • 4/5
      No earth-shattering revelations. No promises to change your life, or even your view of fiction. Just a well-written story about ordinary upper-middle-class characters you'll come to love. It's both funny and touching.
    • 3/5
      This novel follows two oddly matched couples as they stumble toward happy marriages. Colwin’s novel feels old-fashioned for its willingness to have its characters truly listen to each other. Other aspects of the book seem passé, too, but I wish more writers would revive them. Colwin appreciates her characters and takes them seriously—she doesn’t create them solely to poke fun at them—and she allows them to achieve limited victories. The generous spirit she brings to writing the book makes it a pleasure to read.
    • 2/5
      I see almost nothing but raves about this book, many saying they've read it more than once. I have to say I don't get the appeal at all. Set in two places I have a lot of affection for, my native New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts, the novel could be set anywhere, not really giving a sense of place beyond a mention of Harvard Square or the Museum of Natural History. the novel follows two "third cousins" who have been best friends from infancy, Guido and Vincent, and their romances with and marriages to Holly and Misty. I thought the style far too much tell, rather than show, but what left me utterly cold were the characters. Guido and Vincent seem rather bland trust fund babies, but if I found them rather flat, their amours, whom both fall in love with at first sight, left me utterly cold. Guido's love Holly comes across as sterile, superficial. She's described as "unswervable, unflappable, untouched" and is the kind of woman who seems lacquered and robotic. Misty, Vincent's love interest? Well, as he says of her at one point, she's "not very nice" and she agrees with him. Light, fun, charming, insightful? Colwin a contemporary Jane Austen? I don't see it.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite books in the world. I've read it about once every 5 years or so, and have never been disappointed. It's light- no horrible things happen- but the dialog is excellent and the characters really well-drawn, from major to minor (although the 2 main guys are fairly similar).I just love it.
    • 5/5
      This is a book about love happening between four generally good, intelligent, and interesting people. The men are good, genuine men, who love their women deeply. The women are smart, sassy, classy women. The story that unfolds is gentle and funny, a kind of comedy of manners in which the characters say clever things you wish you could think to say. The book transpires like a good relationship or marriage, there are moments of great happiness and there are moments of great sorrow or pain, but throughout all there is steadying flow of contentment throughout. Every time I put this book down, it was with a smile on my face and I couldn't wait to pick it up again. For me, this book was pure joy.
    • 5/5
      My favorite book. I don't know what that says about me, but it is, in fact, a book that makes me insanely happy.
    • 5/5
      Our main characters are actually not. (Not happy all the time, that is.) Nothing phases Holly. She’s imperturbable, un-ruffle-able. Nothing gets to her. Never sad, but never very happy either. That’s Holly. And then there’s Misty. No one would call her happy. “If you wanted some appealing girl, why didn’t you go down to the PR department? It’s loaded with appealing types.”“I don’t want any of those appealing types,” he paused. “I wanted you.”“Oh yeah?” said Misty. “What are you going to do when you get me?”“Well, take you out for lunch,” said Vincent.“Really? Well, I don’t permit myself to be taken out for lunch.”“Is that some kind of militant stand?”“No,” said Misty. “I’m just not that sort of girl. I don’t go in for all that adorable socializing. I think it’s stupid and disgusting.”“I see,” said Vincent. “You’re not very nice, are you?”“No,” said Misty.It isn’t a happily-ever-after sort of book, but, nevertheless, it is both mood-boosting (it’s on the official Mood-Boosting Book list) and genuine. Colwin is a master. I will read more of her.
    • 3/5
      I loved and continue to love Laurie Colwin's two foodbooks -- Homecooking and More Homecooking—and recommend them wholeheartedly. I finally came across the opportunity to read one of her fiction books, specifically Happy All the Time. The reviews are largely raves, with many claiming the book changed their lives and/or they reread it every year. I'm afraid I can't agree and after spending some time thinking about it realized it may be a generational matter. The characters, who do little but talk and question their own good fortune, were just tiresome and annoying in the end. Maybe younger readers, with a touch less cynicism, miss that, but in the end, the book just wasn't entranching. Very well written, however.