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A review by rvandenboomgaard
Happiness by Aminatta Forna
3.0
Fourth book I read for a course on 'Narrative, Fiction and Voice'.
Edit 17-11-2021: Bumped the rating up from 2 to 3 stars after having discussed this novel during class. I still think the diversity of topics ensures the failure of bringing across a solid point, any solid point, I still feel the plot structure to be completely incoherent and unbelievable and I still believe it to be implicitly moralising to the border of explicitness, but it is not as flat as I initially considered it to be.
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Oh, how I long for the day when we can perceive people as people again, rather than coloured and gendered subjects. It's so dehumanising.
Well, if anybody - 50 years from now - wants to have a flat overview of all of the societal problems of our day and time, they need look no further than 'Happiness'. Even though they will not need literature for that; most of us will either be long gone below sea level by that time, or have access to well-structured online databases of news outlets and Wikipedia pages. In ages past, this was different - literature was, possibly, the only place to voice concerns of this scale, as official censorship was still in sway. The literary author could subvert the official communication channels and media through the subtleties that artistic writing is prone to.
Of this subtlety I have experienced nigh nothing in 'Happiness'. I'd say that literature, both back then, and now, does not serve to implicitly inform the reader of problems of various natures, but, rather, to evoke the reader's empathy by crafting a narrative that invites the reader into the position or perspective of those experiencing the problem(s). I feel 'Happiness' fails at this - horribly.
First of all, like I said, the sheer amount of problems addressed in this novel is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. As a result, the potential power of empathy, sympathy, is severely watered down. It includes so many of the 'mainstream' societal problems, that I'm more inclined to consider what is not discussed in 'Happiness', than what is. For instance, despite the incessant mentioning of the characters' skin colours, I see no (mentionable) mention of anything regarding the queer community. Additionally, notwithstanding the clear advocation for animal rights, there is not much concern for the broader environment. In a novel that discusses gender relations, the position of people of colour, animal rights, the shortage on healthcare with a focus on the mental health crisis, and many other topics, those two are, to me, striking omissions.
What's more, I experienced no flow in the reading experience. There were even plenty of typos that were not edited out. The story did not make sense. I just think it was simply not written well. Maybe if put in film it can be portrayed better, but now it just didn't work. Both this, and the amount of societal topics covered, evoke in me the image of a writer drawing up a list of societal problems that are already well-known and broadly discussed, choosing some 'favourites' that provide the general lines of the story, and then thinking up elaborate ways of making the 'non-favourites' weave into those general storylines by assigning those to separate chapters. The result is not a melting pot from which the careful blend of ingredients emanate aromas that one savours, or that at least titillate one, but a colourless, odourless, slightly revolting mash.
Ultimately, I feel I have - once again - been fed the Western, or probably more aptly put Westernised, perspective on those people and situations that are not considered Western. I don't need that, none of us need that, that narrative, perspective, is more than well known by now. Please, do help me step into the minds of those considered not Western, or Westernised. Create the empathy for those people by making us enter the minds of those people - that is where the value of contemporaneous socially activist literature lays. To me, this is just a (hardly) novelised reiteration of the perspectives we all know already, and does not even really accord to the actual perspective of the people(s) discussed.
The only redeeming qualities to me were the sparse bits and pieces of timeless wisdom, the slightly positively provoking speech of chapter 23 and the relatively neutral voice taken throughout the story.
Feels like a simplified 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf.
Edit 17-11-2021: Bumped the rating up from 2 to 3 stars after having discussed this novel during class. I still think the diversity of topics ensures the failure of bringing across a solid point, any solid point, I still feel the plot structure to be completely incoherent and unbelievable and I still believe it to be implicitly moralising to the border of explicitness, but it is not as flat as I initially considered it to be.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, how I long for the day when we can perceive people as people again, rather than coloured and gendered subjects. It's so dehumanising.
Well, if anybody - 50 years from now - wants to have a flat overview of all of the societal problems of our day and time, they need look no further than 'Happiness'. Even though they will not need literature for that; most of us will either be long gone below sea level by that time, or have access to well-structured online databases of news outlets and Wikipedia pages. In ages past, this was different - literature was, possibly, the only place to voice concerns of this scale, as official censorship was still in sway. The literary author could subvert the official communication channels and media through the subtleties that artistic writing is prone to.
Of this subtlety I have experienced nigh nothing in 'Happiness'. I'd say that literature, both back then, and now, does not serve to implicitly inform the reader of problems of various natures, but, rather, to evoke the reader's empathy by crafting a narrative that invites the reader into the position or perspective of those experiencing the problem(s). I feel 'Happiness' fails at this - horribly.
First of all, like I said, the sheer amount of problems addressed in this novel is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. As a result, the potential power of empathy, sympathy, is severely watered down. It includes so many of the 'mainstream' societal problems, that I'm more inclined to consider what is not discussed in 'Happiness', than what is. For instance, despite the incessant mentioning of the characters' skin colours, I see no (mentionable) mention of anything regarding the queer community. Additionally, notwithstanding the clear advocation for animal rights, there is not much concern for the broader environment. In a novel that discusses gender relations, the position of people of colour, animal rights, the shortage on healthcare with a focus on the mental health crisis, and many other topics, those two are, to me, striking omissions.
What's more, I experienced no flow in the reading experience. There were even plenty of typos that were not edited out. The story did not make sense. I just think it was simply not written well. Maybe if put in film it can be portrayed better, but now it just didn't work. Both this, and the amount of societal topics covered, evoke in me the image of a writer drawing up a list of societal problems that are already well-known and broadly discussed, choosing some 'favourites' that provide the general lines of the story, and then thinking up elaborate ways of making the 'non-favourites' weave into those general storylines by assigning those to separate chapters. The result is not a melting pot from which the careful blend of ingredients emanate aromas that one savours, or that at least titillate one, but a colourless, odourless, slightly revolting mash.
Ultimately, I feel I have - once again - been fed the Western, or probably more aptly put Westernised, perspective on those people and situations that are not considered Western. I don't need that, none of us need that, that narrative, perspective, is more than well known by now. Please, do help me step into the minds of those considered not Western, or Westernised. Create the empathy for those people by making us enter the minds of those people - that is where the value of contemporaneous socially activist literature lays. To me, this is just a (hardly) novelised reiteration of the perspectives we all know already, and does not even really accord to the actual perspective of the people(s) discussed.
The only redeeming qualities to me were the sparse bits and pieces of timeless wisdom, the slightly positively provoking speech of chapter 23 and the relatively neutral voice taken throughout the story.
Feels like a simplified 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf.