6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A contemporary, touching story, June 27, 2009
This review is from: So Happy Together (Hardcover)
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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." This quote from John Lennon just kept popping up in my mind while I read "So Happy Together." Claire Noble, a high school history teacher and single mother, finally can look forward to the future. She'll spend the summer studying photography in Cape Cod, marry Rick in the fall and move out with her new husband to Arizona where they will have a carefree life. She will pursue photography while Rick will indulge in playing golf. It's the kind of life that she deserves after working hard to make right the mistakes of her youth: falling in love with the wrong guy and having a baby out of wedlock. She's tried but is afraid that she has not done a great job at raising her daughter Amy alone. If she had, Amy would have not run away. But all that is in the past and her plans for the future filled her with excitement. At age 45, it is about time she allows herself to follow her dreams. However, life throws a monkey wrench at her plans. Just when she's about to leave for Cape Cod, Amy returns home alone and ready to give birth. Claire's aging parents, Joe and Fanny go from one crisis to another one as Parkinson's disease robs Joe of his mobility and dignity and turns their lives upside down. And to top it all, a handsome writer walks into Claire's living room and perhaps into her heart.
In "So Happy Together," McFadden skillfully weaves a touching tale of three women moving through three different stages of life toward one common goal--to find meaning in their existence. It's not difficult to like the characters. As I followed Claire, Fanny, and Amy, I could think of real people who were walking in their shoes. In Claire I found a realistic portrayal of what it feels like to be torn between the duty to care for elderly parents and the desire to fulfill one's dreams. I could understand Fanny's guilt at imposing on Claire for help and her urgency to hold on to a semblance of independence as Joe's health declined. I empathized with Amy who's rebellious and resentful toward Claire yet finds herself making her mother's same mistake.
The setting is also an integral part of the novel. The sounds and beautiful sights of Cape Cod come alive through McFadden's words. By the time I reached the ending, I was sorry to say goodbye to her characters as well as to the beaches of Cape Cod. I really enjoyed this book and I am glad that I picked this novel because it led me to an epiphany: Sometimes it may seem life is unraveling, but it is in fact life coming together at last.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
absorbing, satisfying, April 29, 2010
This review is from: So Happy Together (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
So Happy Together is a story of regret and missed opportunities, but also hope and reconciliation, as several members of an extended family try to free themselves of past disappointments and take advantage of new opportunities. Happiness and satisfaction with their lives seem to have eluded them. Just as it seems the main character, 45-year-old high school history teacher Claire Noble, is about to change all that, the return of her estranged and pregnant 24-year-old daughter puts her plans and needs on the back burner once again, and possibly permanently.
When getting pregnant herself at 21 by Liam, the man she thought was the love of her life, Claire has to put her life on hold and raise her daughter Amy alone, after Liam completely bails on them. He skips out on child support as well, and Claire scrapes by on a teacher's salary for 20 years, all the while longing to pursue her dream of being a photographer. But Amy resents her and blames her for her father's absence, nearly flunks out of college, and doesn't seem to care what she does with her life. After a huge fight in which Claire kicks her out, Amy disappears for 18 months.
As the book begins, Claire seems to have everything finally in order: she is engaged to the handsome and successful Rick, she is heading off to Cape Cod for an amazing photography course over the summer, and marrying Rick upon her return. Their plans are fully laid out: she'll retire at the end of the school year and move to Arizona, where they can enjoy a careful lifestyle of photography for her and golf for him. She has pangs of guilt about leaving her native New Jersey and her elderly parents, especially since her father has Parkinson's. But she is excited about her future after years of giving in to everyone else's needs; it is finally HER time to achieve her dreams.
The night before she is due to leave for Cape Cod, her world gets completely turned upside down: Amy returns, angry as always, but suddenly in need of her mother when she gives birth to a baby girl. I won't reveal much more of the plot than that, except that, naturally, another handsome man becomes part of the picture. As described on the book cover, Claire's father reveals a longheld secret to her, one that has haunted him as well as his wife, who only knows it involves another woman who seems to have been "the one who got away."
The story unfolds quickly in the first part of the book, with challenge after challenge pulling at Claire. Her sense of duty and self-sacrifice is strong, and not easily understood by her selfish and self-indulgent fiancé, who is childless and wants to keep it that way. She is strong, though, and decisive. She is a sympathetic, likable and relatable character, but she's not overly predictable. She has depth, as do all of the characters except Rick, which is surely intentional.
Almost as soon as John Poole, the writer who was supposed to rent her house for the summer, hires her to photograph the historic canals near her home, I thought the story would become a typical clichéd romance. But it doesn't. Maryann McFadden is gifted in creating multi-dimensional characters and making you feel both sympathetic toward them and frustrated with them at the same time, especially in the case of Amy and Claire's parents. The technique of using omniscient third-person storytelling for both Claire and her mother is very effective, as these two women both feel they've given up something and don't know what they ever had. It brings the reader into their hearts and souls and makes you care about them. Gradually, you begin to care about most of the characters, with Rick the only real exception: you wonder if Claire will see how selfish he is, and you wonder if he really loves her the way he should.
The real star of this book, however, is the beautiful Cape Cod village of Provincetown. McFadden's descriptions make it come to life in a way that made me long to be there, taking that same photography course, or at least photographing those sand dunes and that light (I am a photographer myself). In fact, before I was even done reading it, I began checking out airfares to Boston and the ferry to Provincetown! It will be on my travel itinerary sooner than later, to be sure.
So Happy Together isn't perfect, but it's absorbing (I finished reading it at 2 a.m.!) and in the end, mostly satisfying. I had wished for a little more detail in the epilogue, but it was enough to make me happy. I didn't feel it was too much of a Hollywood ending, although some of the twists and turns, and challenges that kept getting thrown at Claire, did become a bit more than seemed necessary to tell the story. Everyone seemed to struggle so much, but not to communicate well enough to bring those struggles to a resolution sooner, but at the same time, a lot of personal growth and change took place, so that when the resolutions occurred, they were truer, if that makes sense.
All in all, a worthwhile read, and somewhat cathartic. If you've ever felt yourself waiting for your own chance to change your future and take yourself out of your comfort zone, you'll relate to this book. I mean, who among us hasn't sacrificed a dream when reality got in the way?
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