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A review by aptusstercore
Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl
3.0
3.5 stars
In the end I felt myself asking, "When?" in regards to the title.
I think some books are really good but the main character just keep it from being great and that's what this was a case of for me. I frankly didn't really like Ellinor, though it was definitely interesting to get inside her head for a while. I suppose too, if you look at it, that also makes you special as she never let anyone else in there. This isn't a story where some older woman finds her voice, this is a story where a woman started off as one thing and ended up as exactly the same thing. She's only telling everything to the one safe person she has to talk to, and seemingly about the only one she has to talk to now that she's lost her husband and ostracized nearly everyone else, and that's her deceased friend.
I constantly waited for her to show emotions towards someone, deep ones, and in the end I was met with the only feeling of love, even in a strangely sort of romantic sense, being between her and her best friend Anna. In the end it's a story of someone who was born into a tough situation, who felt everything in the world would judge them if they were themselves and so they were only a shell of themselves and sought to stay only in comfortable and safe positions, hence her whole life. Her friend, who was deceased seemed to be the opposite of that. She would have been an interesting character to right about, with life mistakes that I imagine would have been much more interesting.
I couldn't much help but compare her the entire time to the main character, Christina Olson, from A Piece of the World by Christina Kline. She too spent much of her life inside herself, but there was something endearing in her that I just couldn't find in Ellinor and she just seemed more multi-dimensional, even if just as stubborn and pessimistic.
I'll also say, if you've had someone very close to you die, you'll understand some of the depth of things that Ellinor went through. This idea and feeling I think one is left with, when someone you love dies, where you feel the need to only remember them in a positive way. Like it then becomes a crime to blame them with anything. Hopefully that passes and you face them in a more honest and healthy way, Ellinor never seemed to.
Also I will give a warning that there is at least one moment, if not more, that will make you cringe as the behavior isn't nearly appropriate with the word negro even being used. Not surprising given the time of her life or her personality, really, but still worth note for those who have a zero tolerance for reading those sorts of things.
The one thing that made the book feel as good as it did for me was that the author is clearly very talented. The character, although not someone I'd want to befriend, was very believable, as was her feelings and her decisions. I feel like everyone can recall an aunt or neighbor who she reminds you of. Plus it was just so pleasurable to jump around not only in time, but in between all these different aspects that Ellinor was discussing, from her younger life, to her mother's story and then this constantly explanation of the relationship between the four characters in this sort of ... love-square dance. I'm definitely going to be seeking out other stories by Jens Christian Grøndahl in the future.
In the end I felt myself asking, "When?" in regards to the title.
I think some books are really good but the main character just keep it from being great and that's what this was a case of for me. I frankly didn't really like Ellinor, though it was definitely interesting to get inside her head for a while. I suppose too, if you look at it, that also makes you special as she never let anyone else in there. This isn't a story where some older woman finds her voice, this is a story where a woman started off as one thing and ended up as exactly the same thing. She's only telling everything to the one safe person she has to talk to, and seemingly about the only one she has to talk to now that she's lost her husband and ostracized nearly everyone else, and that's her deceased friend.
I constantly waited for her to show emotions towards someone, deep ones, and in the end I was met with the only feeling of love, even in a strangely sort of romantic sense, being between her and her best friend Anna. In the end it's a story of someone who was born into a tough situation, who felt everything in the world would judge them if they were themselves and so they were only a shell of themselves and sought to stay only in comfortable and safe positions, hence her whole life. Her friend, who was deceased seemed to be the opposite of that. She would have been an interesting character to right about, with life mistakes that I imagine would have been much more interesting.
I couldn't much help but compare her the entire time to the main character, Christina Olson, from A Piece of the World by Christina Kline. She too spent much of her life inside herself, but there was something endearing in her that I just couldn't find in Ellinor and she just seemed more multi-dimensional, even if just as stubborn and pessimistic.
I'll also say, if you've had someone very close to you die, you'll understand some of the depth of things that Ellinor went through. This idea and feeling I think one is left with, when someone you love dies, where you feel the need to only remember them in a positive way. Like it then becomes a crime to blame them with anything. Hopefully that passes and you face them in a more honest and healthy way, Ellinor never seemed to.
Also I will give a warning that there is at least one moment, if not more, that will make you cringe as the behavior isn't nearly appropriate with the word negro even being used. Not surprising given the time of her life or her personality, really, but still worth note for those who have a zero tolerance for reading those sorts of things.
The one thing that made the book feel as good as it did for me was that the author is clearly very talented. The character, although not someone I'd want to befriend, was very believable, as was her feelings and her decisions. I feel like everyone can recall an aunt or neighbor who she reminds you of. Plus it was just so pleasurable to jump around not only in time, but in between all these different aspects that Ellinor was discussing, from her younger life, to her mother's story and then this constantly explanation of the relationship between the four characters in this sort of ... love-square dance. I'm definitely going to be seeking out other stories by Jens Christian Grøndahl in the future.