The Sad Truth about Happiness

This novel reads more like poetry than prose. Its plot may seem thin, but it is simply a subtle novel about life's complex questions. The ending is uplifting. I am awaiting Giardini's second novel impatiently....

Happiness, motherhood, and the mysteries of life are the themes of The Sad Truth About Happiness, a delicately written novel that explores the nuances and simple choices of domestic life. The story centers on thirty-two-year-old Maggie, who is told by her roommate Rebecca - who devises questionnaires for women's magazines - that she will die in three months unless she finds happiness. Maggie isn't exactly unhappy. She has a satisfying job working as a radiologist at a local breast cancer clinic, three different men are pursuing her, and she lives in a nice, expensive apartment with Rebecca, who kindly cooks for her. Maggie also has a close relationship with her two turbulent sisters, Lucy and Janet, and she's on good terms with her left-of-center, slightly new agey parents. But is she really happy? It isn't until she takes one of Rebecca's questionnaires that she realizes she cannot truthfully answer: yes. The Sad Truth About Happiness is all about Maggie's journey as she finds the meaning of true "happiness," and tries to "shuffle off this mortal coil." She takes up jogging, goes out with her three suitors - a divorcee, a lawyer, and an eloquent and wealthy plastic surgeon, she goes bush-walking with her best friend, and even seeks spiritual enlightenment by attending mass in a local church. Maggie's life really takes a turn for the tumultuous when she gets involved in a kidnap plot. Her violently temperamental sister Lucy has just returned home to Vancouver from Rome. Pregnant to Gian Luigi, a wealthy Italian, Lucy loves Gian dearly, but just can't cope with the fact that he already has a wife and three children. When the baby is finally born, Maggie finds herself helping her younger sister in a surprisingly impulsive and volatile way. Maggie admits she's the least spiritual person she knows; she has, "no religious or mystical impulses," however, the new Maggie is scarcely recognizable as the young woman who describes herself as "practical, sensible, reliable, a realist." Maggie's philosophical quest to find happiness is somewhat sublimated to the baby snatching plot that makes up the last two thirds of the novel, and one wonders whether author Anne Giardini sells out her solid opening premise for a more action orientated plot, along with extended talks on the merits of breast feeding. Still, in The Sad Truth About Happiness, Giardini has a firm grasp of her characters, particularly Maggie, with all her flaws, fears, and insecuties about her life and loves. She's a complex, multi-faceted character who is intent to use equal parts mind and heart to get at the answers. Maggie's philosophical posterings are spot-on: she sees happiness as connected to love: "something to love, something to do, something to hope for, these are the essentials of happiness. For Maggie, happiness is more ephemeral than thought. It can be observed without changing its nature, its ingredients are subtle and there is no guarentee that a recipe for joy can