"Too Much Happiness"--Well, Not So Much

About a week and a half ago, the Neland women tackled Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro. It's taken me until now to actually finish the book and then re-read some of it to figure out what I really thought!

Alice Munro is a Canadian short story writer of formidable skill. She is amazing. But this book is not full of "too much happiness." Most of the short stories are built around sad or disturbing events and people. As one member of our group said, "I don't like any of these characters!"

So, the idea of the book being "good" or "not good" became a bit more complex.

One of Munro's strengths that we agreed on was her ability to draw you into the story. No matter how weird or sad the story will become, she first has you identifying completely with the character. You can recognize things about yourself. So that by the time the weirdness sets in, you can only wonder how you would react in such circumstances. As our leader, also named Alice, put it, Munro has a pretty clear picture of total depravity. And she has a pretty good understanding of how we deceive ourselves into believing that what we choose to do only makes sense, is really the only choice we had. One truly bizarre story, "Wenlock Edge," ends with the main character watching college students making their way across campus. "On their way to deeds they didn't know they had in them."

So this isn't light fiction. One interview that our Alice read explained that Munro does not like fiction to be called "escape fiction"--she does not want to be read as an escape. Mission accomplished. No one would confuse her short stories with a good beach read. And don't go to these stories for a sense of redemption. Only a couple of them have seeds of hope planted in them, and even those come only after you've spent a good portion of the story expecting the worst to happen.

She draws very distinct characters and settings, and like Chekhov, who wrote that "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it," she gives subtle clues to careful readers (or re-readers) that are brought to fruition at the end of the story.

The stories in this book are set in Canada, mostly in the rural sort of area that Munro herself lives in, with one big exception. The last story is drawn from the true story of Sophia Kovalevsky, a Russian novelist and mathematician in the last part of the 19th century. This story has a Russian feel to it as well--lots of characters with multiple names, cold weather, long train rides, and lack of freedom of the female characters in comparison to the men are evocative of Anna Karenina. Sophia is recognized as a brilliant mathematician, but she finds it almost impossible to be hired by universities because she is a woman. We talked about the fact that the story is called "Too Much Happiness." And even more so the irony that this is also the title given to this collection.

Our discussions showed that people read for very individual reasons. Some read for that escape, some for inspiration, some for the enjoyment of a redemptive story, and some solely for the chance to read well-crafted work. One of the benefits of being in this book club is that we are pushed to try things we might not pick up otherwise, and we learn from the different reactions that each of us have. I think that Alice Munro may have won some admirers this month, but maybe not so many fans.

Why do you read?

Gary Schmidt's "Okay For Now"

Doug Swieteck, we hardly knew ye. The class clown in The Wednesday Wars has the starring role in Gary Schmidt's latest book, Okay For Now, due out April 18. This book is wonderful.

Doug still loves baseball and the New York Yankees. Holling Hoodhood even makes a cameo appearance. However, Doug's story is very different from Holling's. At the start of this novel, Doug's less-than-perfect father decides (regardless of the rest of the family's wishes) that it's time to pull up stakes from Long Island and start over in a small mill town in upstate New York.

The town of Marysville does not welcome Doug Swieteck and his family with open arms. And Doug has other problems. His mom is worried about his oldest brother, Lucas, who is in Vietnam. His new gym teacher and principal have it out for him. And the librarian isn't so fond of him either.

This novel will be very accessible to middle school readers. Doug's thought patterns follow his colloquial speech patterns, and you experience each event with him. The story and Schmidt's writing is compelling. Doug's abusive father, jeering high school brother and sad, but beautiful mother come alive to the reader, and they do not become caricatures. Each character has motives and problems of their own.

Doug is struggling to decide just exactly who he is, even as different members of the community try to decide that for him. But Doug isn't the only star here; Schmidt weaves in art composition lessons via Audubon's birds, Vietnam veterans, a budding romance and, of all things, Jane Eyre. And, of course, baseball. 

Okay for Now is both entertaining and soulful, and anyone who is or has been a middle schooler will appreciate Doug's situation. Keep the Kleenex handy. And I suggest that you read it as soon as you can. On that note, Gary will be signing books at a release party on April 8 at 6:30 at our very own Pooh's Corner (sorry, out-of-towners!). Put it on your calendar now!