Happiness

I loved Aminatta Forna's previous novel, Memories Of Love, so was especially thrilled to get an advanced reader copy of her newest book, Happiness. While I wasn't emotionally swept up into the story in the same way this time around, I still enjoyed the read just as much. Happiness is set mostly in present-day London and I felt that Forna's evocation of the city is absolutely spot on. The feel of life in these streets and the interaction between the characters we meet there portrays a strong village-within-a-city vibe. Communities knit themselves together, supporting each other even though they may seem invisible to other people rushing past.

Forna uses her lead characters, Jean and Attila, to neatly contrast experiences of life in various places across the globe with that of different London communities. She explores the question of how we can create happiness for ourselves, whether it comes from internal or external sources and, most interestingly for me, whether humans need to have experienced pain and suffering in their own pasts in order to truly feel happy in the present. It's a provocative concept and one which I have thought about a lot since finishing this book. I am not sure that this Happiness (the novel) will appeal to every reader. I particularly appreciated Jean for her independent mind and ambitions, but she isn't always likeable, and I found Attila sometimes too aloof to easily empathise with. However I thought these attributes made them both feel real. I'm not sure I completely understood the deeper meaning of the urban fox / coyote storylines although I enjoyed learning about their lives too.