Happiness Economics

by Shari Lapena

Shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

Will Thorne is a stalled poet, married to Judy, a wildly successful celebrity economist. Pressured by a starving fellow poet, Will establishes The Poets' Preservation Society, a genteel organization to help poets in need. But when Will meets his muse, the enigmatic and athletic Lily White, he becomes inspired not only to write poetry, but to take guerrilla action in support of poets everywhere. Poetry meets parkour and culture clashes with commerce in this hilarious look at how we measure the value of art.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Canada

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2011

Reviews

[Corinne Wasilewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tongue in cheek look at poets, poetry, muses and the meaning of life. I loved the humour -- so many great lines that really made me laugh. This one for example: "Writing is the new reading!" and, of course, Will's jingle line - Softer, stronger...because it's three ply. I also appreciated the comparison between poetry and parkour. All in all, a really good book.

[Megan Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I went into this book blindly. Also, I wanted to read everything that is in Shari Lapena’s catalog.

I probably should have read the blurb before. This is one of Lapena’s earlier works before she switched over to thrillers. I was expecting this to be a self help book about how society wants to monetize happiness through capitalism and maximalism. I was very wrong.

I like fiction, but I tend to read thrillers and fantasy books over contemporary or lit fit. I was hoping that Lapena would throw in a murder somewhere in the book 😂 I prefer her latter works like Someone We Know and An Unwanted Guest.

This book isn’t bad-it’s just not a genre that I enjoy. I’m sure that other readers might like the dysfunctional family trope or the anguished poet/muse relationship. She does have some tongue in cheek moments throughout the book. If you need a palate cleanser from Lapena’s books, you can try reading this/her debut book. If you (like me) prefer her thrillers, you can skip it.

[January · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happiness Economics by Shari Lapeña
8h 7m narrated by Robin Wilcock, 232 pages

Genre: Humor, Fiction

Featuring: Parenting, Marital Issues, Family Dynamics, Poets, Economist and Author of Personal Finance Books, Multiple POVs, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Discontentment, Children, Muse, Politics, Drama

Rating as a movie: R for adult content

Songs for the soundtrack: "Take Me Away" by Avril Lavigne

Books and Authors mentioned: A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, The Corporation by Joel Bakan, Harold Crooks, and Mark Achbar; An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke by Theodore Roethle

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✒️🎭

My thoughts: 📱43% 3:31:20 Chapter 12 - I haven't read Shari Lapena's first two novels because they weren't thrillers, but since they have been republished and more accessible I have a new desire to check them out. This book only took a chapter to get into but my interest is starting to fade now. It's some sort of Literary Fiction Satire, but more Contemporary.
📱50% 4:04:19 Chapter 13 - Now I'm really going to bed.

It had its moments but I certainly didn't love it. This story is around 16 years old so I was trying to connect the economic issues to that period, but it was lost on me. What I did notice is that Lapena can write good characters and witty dialogue, although all of the other characters I've read by her were better than this lot.

Recommend to others: Not likely. I'm not sure what I read, but I think if you're into Literary Fiction, poetry, or a die-hard Lapeña fan go for it.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a tale about artistic inspiration as well as the dichotomy of the arts and economics but the biggest obstacle with this book is that the main characters are all quite unlikable. The wife Judy is an over-achieving judgmental harridan. The completely incompatible husband Will is the exact opposite -- an under-achieving whinging wimp. The kids are slightly more sympathetic. Zoe, the nasty twelve year-old daughter, is under enormous pressure from her mother and her peers. Alex, the ten year-old son, pudgy and nonathletic, is blissfully content with his life and is, by far, the most appealing character. There is little comedy in this story but a modicum of character development in the daughter. The author provides little insight into how a muse actually motivates someone to write other than from a purely sexual perspective. Recommended only for hardcore CanLit fans.

[Alana Leonhard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most boring book ever. I also hate poetry

[Lana. · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Paul was reading poetry, I was reading this: A story about a poet going through a mid-life crisis. It seemed rather bleak at first (sad marriage, parenthood, aging). But then, the whole thing became unexpectedly funny: middle-aged men acting like teenagers, teenagers creatively working through their problems, parkour!

People behaving badly generally leave a bad taste in my mouth, but the surprisingly sweet and then hilariously absurd turns mid-way, made it overall enjoyable.

[Gillian Deacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun read, full of well-drawn characters. I loved that the author was able to poke fun at all her characters, especially the poets, and yet still make readers empathetic to their struggles. Happiness Economics will make you want to crack open some more poetry!

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s a good thing I read this book last , being the first one this Author had written, because if I’d read it first, I would never have read anything more of hers! Glad she’s proven herself better!!!

[Luise · Rating 4 out of 5]

poet married to economist - clash in philosophies of life, raising teenagers, poetry as life's work, value of art vs. monetary success, intelligent comedy

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but drawn out story of what constitutes happiness in different people.

[Leah Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick easy read.... and mostly a silly story......

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ew.

[Tamar...playing hooky for a few hours today · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happiness Economics (HE) took me a while (nearly 50%!) to "get into", but when I did, I enjoyed. Who could resist an opportunity to read a book by this author without having to wait a whole year or so for the next one to be cranked out. Recently a few of my libraries (the Toronto Public Library among them) acquired both the ebook and audiobook for loan on Libby, as well as ebook and audiobook of another of her earlier works, Things Go Flying (TGF). Now I see I have to go back to the latter because it suffered from the same malady this one did, failure to take off within a few pages. Hopefully I'll find that TGF, too, is worth sticking with 'til the end.

The Shari Lapena humor is evident in several places but HE lacks the spark evident in her more recent novels. I laughed out loud and highlighted a few parts for later chuckle reminders of wildly successful Canadian poets earning $500 for their published books of poetry, and daughter Zoey making use of her newly acquired self-defense skills leaving an angry (but deserved) welt on the forehead of a man prowling the upstairs hall of her house in the middle of the night. The "prowler" turned out to be a neighbor whose wife had thrown him out of the house in the middle of the night and, unbeknownst to Zoey, her parents (Judy and Will) provided a crash pad for the night.

HE follows the escapades of Will (pathetic poet) and Judy (successful, high functioning economist), Zoey (older daughter grappling with being cast out of the popular girl's crowd of admiring high school mates, and Alex, younger brother couch potato who suffers the brunt of Zoey's frustration.

Will, once a Professor and poet laureate (having published a book of poetry), left his position to care for the couple's children and become a full-time poet. The trouble was that his wife, Judy, was so successful as were her published books on Economics, that he never seemed able to eek out another book of poetry....that is until he found his muse in Lily White, a lover and critic of poetry. Judy, in the meantime, has seen how miserable Will is and how blocked. After calling in a favor but failing to get him interested in advertising jingles, Judy establishes and bankrolls The Society for Preservation of Poets, where Will can play the role of philanthropist distributing funds to worthy down and out poets, facilitating their livelihood while writing poetry that will hardly be read and never provide a livelihood.

The SPP allows him to bring Lily onto the Board of Directors. Lily, the unwitting muse, occupies Will's fantasies, day and night.

Things get wacky, as the story picks up speed. Along the way the reader will find numerous platitudes of family dynamics, adolescent preoccupation with social acceptance, marriage infidelity and its effect on children and friendships, and more.

The audio is short, only 8 hours, and at 130% speed is still easy to follow and yet a quicker read. The narration is very good.

[Vivian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is garbage. Wife works in finance. Husband, Will, is a poet. They have 2 teenage kids who he tends to as Stay at Home Dad. In the evening, he attends poetry readings. One night, he attends and sees a beautiful poet, Lily. After her reading, her ex-boyfriend shows up from prison, and a struggle ensues between Lily & her ex. Will decides to try to thwart the attempt by diving at the ex as they leave. He misses, landing on the floor, getting banged up, and the story makes it into the paper. Will becomes infatuated with Lily, calling her his muse. Having been in a writers block, he is convinced she is the one to unblock him. The story continues in this manner for its entirety. It was lame, repetitive and boring. I could not relate. Parts were kind of funny, but it was a waste of my time to read. It was nothing more than a middle aged man lusting after a woman half his age while raising two kids and his wife provides their security.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will Thorne is a stalled poet, married to Judy, a wildly successful celebrity economist. Pressured by a starving fellow poet, Will establishes The Poets' Preservation Society, a genteel organization to help poets in need. But when Will meets his muse, the enigmatic and athletic Lily White, he becomes inspired not only to write poetry, but to take guerrilla action in support of poets everywhere. Poetry meets parkour and culture clashes with commerce in this hilarious look at how we measure the value of art.

[Joggingt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually going to rate this book a three until I reached end and the moral of the story was divulged. This is a book about a man who is so enamored with poetry that he allows it to take over his whole life almost to the brink of ruining it. His wife is business oriented and not into the arts to the extreme. She’s a well-known economist who tries to structure her life in that manner. Married to an artist who thinks with his heart and not his brain, her life too becomes very difficult. then enter Lily White, her husband’s muse. this relationship almost topples their entire empire

[Ellen D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

This book is quite different from others of hers I have read, mysteries, which I also enjoyed. It's not a beach read - which I don't like - but it's light and fun. I liked all the characters, even those which were presented as a bit negative had their bright side too, which is always a good sign. The story moves along and at no point did I skim just to get to the next part. I found myself wanting everyone to be happy at the end - no spoiler here as to whether this happened! The book reminded me of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus in its tone. Perfectly delightful!

[Stephanie Joslin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not my thing. I generally enjoyed the characters with the exception of Will. I do not in any way relate to the middle aged anguished poet - he drove me crazy. I wish this book had taken a different route, maybe dug more into the 2008 financial crisis or the family dynamics. Instead I feel that I read an entire book about a grown man whining because he had writer’s block and was struggling not to cheat on his wife.

[janet leonhard · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the worst book I’ve ever finished. I don’t even really know why I finished it.
It was boring and I actually despised the main character, Will. I think I kept reading it because I thought Judy would eventually divorce him and I wanted to read about that because that would have made me happy! But she never did. Hated it

[Carol Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I unexpectedly thoroughly enjoyed this book. Adults and teenagers behaving badly, but fighting for what is important to them, and growing through it. Humorous and touching, we feel the emotion of the various characters.

[Loni Miner · Rating 2 out of 5]

unlikeable characters and little to no story development. some funny lines, but mostly like spending the day with an exhausting acquaintance who thinks you are hilarious when you are really just being mean.

[Kimberly Zavala · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 the writing is not bad. The story is awful. Two middle aged poets fawning over a 25 year old girl not interested in their advances. Two kids taking self defense classes. it's all over the place. If you love Shari Lapena's thrillers, skip this because I'm not sure what it is, but not that.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Not for me. I'll read almost anything as long as it's well written. Unlikeable characters on a topic I have no interest in.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook
I don't think I liked a single character in this book. They all pretty much sucked and I just couldn't find it within myself to care about their story.

[kristyn ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ · Rating 3 out of 5]

take a shot every time poet is said and you'll get alcohol poisoning

[Dana Vanderploeg · Rating 1 out of 5]

These were some of the most dislikable characters ever. If that was her goal, she succeeded as an author.

[FromAna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Shari Lapena! I’ve loved every other book of hers but This 🤦🏽‍♀️ was so boring! Poetry isn’t my thing but I understand the ebb and flow of creativity SMH I couldn’t anymore DNF at 50%

[Renee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Start it off quippy and interesting… but fizzled and never reignited.

[Theon Makr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Δεν μου αρέσει η ποίηση οπότε δεν μπόρεσα καθόλου να ταυτιστώ με τα προβλήματα του will.ισα ίσα θεωρώ ότι ήταν ένας βολεψακιας τεμπελαρος που ζούσε με τα λεφτά της γυναίκας του

[Alex Glenesk · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really like this author but this was not up to par with her recent books