Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin

This book showed up on my radar recently and I readily listened to it, knowing only that it was described as a cheerful and funny book. The author was born in 1944, wrote for various publications, including The New Yorker and Gourmet, and died when she was only 48 years old. She wrote short stories, novels, and non-fiction relating to cooking. Though the author’s name seems vaguely familiar, I don’t think I had read her books in the past.

Here we have the stories of two men who were childhood best friends, Guido and Vincent, and the women they fell in love with and later married. Both of them were desperately in love, Guido with Holly and Vincent with Misty. The women remained mysterious to the two men and there was much uncertainty about them. And the two women were not comfortable with each other until near the end of the book. The stories continue to the time Guido and Holly have a baby and are able to have a weekend get-away when the two grandmothers come for their first time meeting the baby. (What??) It was published in 1978, but doesn’t seem especially connected to my memories of my life as a young married person with a baby at just that time.

I was happy enough listening to a book with a bit of drama, appealing family backstories, and cheerfulness throughout.

Laurie Colwin, Happy All the Time, Knopf, 1978, 213 pages (I listened to the audiobook). Available in the public library.