I'm So Happy for You: A novel about best friends [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Lucinda Rosenfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 2009

What if your best friend, whom you've always counted on to flounder in life and love (making your own modest accomplishments look not so bad), suddenly starts to surpass you in every way?

Wendy's best friend, Daphne, has always been dependably prone to catastrophe. And Wendy has always been there to help. If Daphne veers from suicidal to madly in love, Wendy offers encouragement. But when Daphne is suddenly engaged, pregnant, and decorating a fabulous town house in no time at all, Wendy is...not so happy for her. Caught between wanting to be the best friend she prides herself on being and crippling jealousy of flighty Daphne, Wendy takes things to the extreme, waging a full-scale attack on her best friend-all the while wearing her best, I'm-so-happy-for-you smile-and ends up in way over her head.

Rosenfeld has a knack for exposing the not-always-pretty side of being best friends--in writing that is glittering and diamond-sharp. I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU is a smart, darkly humorous, and uncannily dead-on novel about female friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rosenfeld (What She Saw) delves into the thornier side of female friendship in this hip take on modern womanhood. Wendy and Daphne have been best friends forever, but their relationship, sketched out in e-mails that cascade from their group of girlfriends, comes to a breaking point when Daphne suddenly pulls herself together, stops fooling around with a married man and finds a new love interest who happens to be handsome, rich and obnoxious. In quick succession, Daphne ties the knot, moves into a brownstone and gets pregnant. Meanwhile, Wendy, a low-paid editorial drone who's been trying and failing to conceive with her slacker husband, feels that her own life is thrown into miserable relief. She begins to lash out at Daphne, first passively, and then rather aggressively. In the course of a few twists, misunderstandings and revealed secrets, Wendy questions whether the source of her inferiority complex is Daphne or herself. The two friends are by turns frustrating and sympathetic, while Rosenfeld takes a dark, hilarious and painfully accurate view of the less-than-pure reasons why women stay friends. (July)
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From The New Yorker

The hapless, too-eager-to-please heroine of Rosenfeld’s new novel is an ill-paid editor at an obscure leftist journal who secretly resents her husband for abandoning his job to write a sci-fi screenplay and for failing to get her pregnant. No wonder she thrills to the travails of her best friend, a suicidal beauty who has always overshadowed her but is now languishing in a dead-end affair. Then, to her chagrin, her friend meets Mr. Right. The book’s confectionery veneer belies a heart of poison, as Rosenfeld tartly dispels the cherished chick-lit notion that female friendship conquers all. Equally ruthless is her sendup of overachieving New York women in feral pursuit of have-it-all motherhood without having first ascertained if they even like children.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (July 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316044504
• ASIN: B0041T4PES
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars with friends like these... I'd move, change my name, and only make friends with men! August 21, 2009

By R. Presner

Format:Paperback

The story revolves around the relationship (I hesitate to use the word 'friendship' out of respect for the term) between two women and their crew. Immediately, you're plunged into a circle of women and their chronic pettiness. The main character, Wendy, is possibly the most insincere, insecure heroine imaginable. She's passive-aggression personified. (Who throws a baby shower for a woman, then insults her guest of honor by writing something vile on the gift???) I think occasional stabs of envy are normal, but Wendy is off the reservation. Daphne is not much better. After fifteen years of using her friend as an emotional crutch, her idea of getting her life together is to "fall in love" with a man that is handsome and wealthy. He's a complete ass, but that fact is largely ignored after his purchase of a large Brooklyn brownstone. Daphne, once a ditz with a penchant for married men, now becomes the woman Wendy desperately envies. Every thought, spoken word, and email these women generate seem premeditated to inflict the most damage on their friends. They spend the duration of the book hating each other, and it's sad to watch.

But it's not just the story that grated at me. It was the book's insinuation that all female friendships are like this. According to "Happy For You," women are incapable of liking each other's company without constantly eying your companion's jewelry, home, or husband. Competition, not solidarity, is the real glue that binds females together. If this is what the author really thinks or has experienced, she has my deepest sympathy.

I thought this would be a slightly more cerebral version of "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue" by Emily Giffin, but was wildly disappointed. Giffin's characters had redeemable qualities; Rosenfeld's do not. While we may see (small) pieces of ourselves in Rosenfeld's women, they are impossible to like. The resentment these women quietly (and then not so quietly) harbor for each other became a character itself. And, sadly, it's the most consistent one.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars The Worst Book I have Ever Read November 18, 2009

By S. Barnes

Format:Paperback

Hands down, the worst book ever. Only the comatose father-in-law manages not too offend. The characters are poorly written and loathsome in every way. Not only do I not know any women like this (thankfully), but I've never even read about such a narrow minded, narcissistic crew. If you love the Real Housewives shows, this book is for you.Its plot, people and trajectory are almost as witty and introspective as what you'll find there. I am forced to give this book 1 star because amazon won't accept zero. After reading this book, I'd like a refund on my time.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I'm So Unhappy for Me November 19, 2009

By Tracy Morales

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow. Where do I even begin? I suppose my biggest question for the author is how did she get this novel published? I know that's very Wendy/Daphne of me to ask so here's hoping she won't be too offended by the question. Neither Wendy nor Daphne endeared themselves to this reader. These female characters were just plain pathetic.

The bag of flour at the baby shower was over-the-top ridiculous and unbelievable as was Wendy's OBGYN suggesting Wendy buy some pretty underwear in order to solve her infertility problems. The sound of Daphne's voice was like nails on a chalkboard. Wendy lies, steals, is selfish, jealous, highly insecure, a slacker at work and seems ill-suited to work for a magazine such as Barricade. The expedited train wreck ending was only good in that it ended the novel. Sure wish our book group had selected that novel by Gore Vidal instead.