Reviews

Reconsidering Happiness: A Novel by Sherrie Flick

johnsonsteph's review against another edition

5.0

This book is a beautiful reflection on how we come to terms with our lives, our loves, and most importantly our relationship to the self. Filled with lush and thoughtful descriptions, Sherrie Flick's writing appeals to all the senses and fully recreates the worlds that her characters inhabit. This novel is a delicate balance of past and present, of hunger and of satiation, of accident and of action. While this novel may not be a perfect match for readers who prefer strong and linear plot lines, Flick demonstrates her mastery of using the physical landscape to mirror the psychological state of her characters. Reconsidering Happiness speaks loudest in its moments of quiet reflection.

shimmer's review against another edition

4.0

It seems fair to say that Reconsidering Happiness is as much -- or more -- a story of moments between events as a story of the events themselves. In these interwoven stories of two women in search of the places they're meant to be, the structure of the novel keeps the narrative circling around its answers like the characters circle their own, in a way that felt entirely natural and never like a narrative trick. The honesty of the characters is striking, as they try to figure out what they want and how to find it, though there are a few scenes in which that emotional frankness seemed a bit too self-aware -- characters so in tune with the meaning of their own experiences that it disrupted the spell of the story for a brief moment. But what I most enjoyed was how skillfully Flick balances the raw, abstract honesty of emotions and desires with the crisp, tangible details of the world the characters move through: the kitchens, bakeries, grocery stores, barrooms, and landscapes are so real and so concrete (though never static) that they create a perfect complement to the tenuous lives of the characters. And while I was thrown a bit by the brief passages in which perspective shifts to the men in the story, and wondered if that was necessary, when I reached the final chapter of the novel it all made sense because that ending -- which I won't reveal -- is so perfect and gorgeous and powerful in the way it casts both closure and a new light onto the story preceding.