Secrets of Happiness

This book explores a myriad of characters whom are all connected through love and family. What intrigued me with each single individual whether it be Rachel, Tara, Saul or Ethan, is that they all held something back from others as if being fully exposed and vulnerable would lead to fleeting happiness. I think the message of this book is that the secrets of happiness is that there is no one hard and fast rule and that it is truly chosen just how we choose how to live as well as whom to share it with. An intellectually stimulating and intriguing read.

Silber's clever family-oriented novel is filled with familiar, yet diverse characters.  Soon in the novel, we learn that the married father of  a family with adult children, a man who spent a large portion of his time traveling in Asia for his job, had a new family that he brought over from Thailand, living not far from them.  

The novel is told through numerous characters, characters who initially are much easier to recognize and then others, that left me wondering who we were now being introduced to, which at times slowed down the pace for a bit, but then the original characters returned, and the novel took a turn where the characters merge on different levels, to take care of a man dying of leukemia.

The secrets of happiness are not that secretive in the end, and the happiness is also less secretive, as we see how this father, the father  who dies early on in this novel, is connected to so many people in so many countries, in so many ways, and how that connection is to some degree the secret of their happiness.

SECRETS OF HAPPINESS
BY JOAN SiLBER

I have been a devoted fan of Joan Silber's writing for twenty plus year's. You can imagine how excited I was to see this novel arrive on my dashboard. Joan writes interesting and unique literary fiction that is way above average. I didn't even read what this was about I knew that I would enjoy it and it didn't disappoint me as she never has before.

In the very beginning we learn that the husband and father of a long term marriage has had a secret family with two adult children that live near by. He was always travelling or away from home on business but now we understand why. These aren't spoilers as it is something said in the synopsis and happens very early on.

What I found amazing is how civil the two wives are to each other when learning about this infidelity because the husband suffers a stroke and some mini strokes that makes him not act himself. The long term wife handles her husband's infidelity and second family like its not a big blow. There are many character's and a lot going on which I appreciated. The writing is smooth and seamless.

Maribel and Schuyler having an affair in England. She know's Schuyler is married to Veronica in New York but goes ahead and continues. When he takes a call and leaves the room, she gets jealous. An accident happens. Maribel has what could be a hard phone call, but she shows great self restraint.

Rachel and her brother Saul who has leukemia and Saul's long term boyfriend named Kirk whose apartment was his meant Saul having to find a new place to live. Saul is a 57 year old librarian with little money. Rachel is stunned and outraged but she always liked Kirk. Saul says don't make a big deal out of this. And what the outcome is surprising.

Joan Silber is a master of infusing the gray area into her characterizations and their realizations. She makes us feel the good of humanity in ending each of her multi-character vignettes find that upbeat ray of hopefulness and redemption. That is what I love about reading her work. There could be gut wrenching sadness but she leaves each scenario with level headed prose that is not depressing.
Highly recommended. This one is my favorite of her novels. There is so much more to this multilayered character driven narrative. There are many diverse character's and places but it is simple to keep them all straight in your mind because they are memorable.

Publication Date: May 4, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Joan Silber and Counterpoint Press for generously providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#SecretsofHappiness #JoanSilber #CounterpointPress #NetGalley

Who knows where happiness comes from?  In this exquisite new book by Joan Silber, the vanity of grasping for happiness—which is destined to slip out of our hands—is revealed through six interlocking narrators. Their tenuous grip is revealed as the very nature of what makes them happy shifts its shape.

It all starts with a man named Gil—a husband and father who is revealed to have two families after he suffers a stroke. Both his American and his Thai-born wife have two children each, and surprisingly, the wives they master the art of restraint in dealing with each other.

And then it spirals out from there. We discover the stories of Gil’s adult gay son, Ethan—who finds himself in his own love triangle—as well as Joe (the son of the Thai-born wife) and his girlfriend Veronica who married a wealthy man named Schuyler who is having an affair with a British woman named Maribel. And then we meet Rachel, whose brother Saul is dying of cancer, and Bud who was raised by John Birchers, and Tara from transitioned from Kathmandu to Berkeley and other characters, some of whom have six degrees of separation.

The quest for happiness, Joan Silber seems to be saying, is universal as we span countries and genders and ages and ethnicities. And sometimes, the lessons we learn are not the ones we expect to learn: that happiness can come from leading an authentic life or letting go of a material possession or an expected way of living our life. A one-time lover from far away, the dying lover of a current lover, a husband’s secret second wife—all of them provide insights and ways to move forward.

Joan Silber, as always, writes as if it were effortless (and this is merely an illusion) and infuses her nuanced characters with a kind of quirky wisdom. Despite some situations which at first appear to be sad, what ties these stories together is the hope of redemption and the belief that the possibilities of some form of happiness exist, even if in impermanence. A big thanks to #CounterpointPress and #NetGalley for the opportunity to become an early reader of an author I’ve long loved.

Joan Silber has written some wonderful books, but this may be my favorite.  She employs a convention I particularly like - her novels consist of interlocking stories in which the characters are related.  The underlying thread that weaves through these stories is love, most specifically, familial love in all its messiness.  Brothers and sisters, parents and their offspring, how people meet, how they stay together and what binds them or tears them apart.  Whether it was as one character supposes "... the whole notion of families was misguided and false"... or as later he thinks when he discovers the ties are inescapable, "Were you always and forever what you were born into?  I had set up my life relying on other principles."  There is not a clichéd  or boring situation in any of these stories, and as they intersect, Silber's characters find themselves if not all the answers.