A review by peeled_grape
Happiness by Aminatta Forna

2.0

The style of this reminds me a lot of Lindsey Drager and Matt Bell, but more whimsical. This gets two stars, which is a little unfair, but my justification is that it dragged in places and did not handle trauma the way it should have. It was dense and a little hard to get through. The reason it reminds me of Bell and Drager is in the way it dwells on tiny moments, seemingly insignificant, except there were sections that I thought had too much detail. The coincidences, too, never entirely seemed to justify themselves, and it seemed to dull the better parts of the book. Attila is supposed to be a trauma expert, too, but his comments were so naïve and stupid that I wanted to throw the book. I really don't think Forna knows anything about trauma, mostly because her comments were all about resilience and the human spirit and how pain is good for you. It wildly oversimplifies everything. So dumb. I was so frustrated. It's not bad, but it feels inauthentic and shallow.