Une vie merveilleuse

by Colwin

Guido et Vincent sont cousins et amis d'enfance. A ces trentenaires de la bonne société new-yorkaise, nantis d'un métier qui leur plaît et d'amis souriants, il ne manque que la femme de leurs rêves pour que la vie soit merveilleuse.Ils la rencontrent au même moment, l'un en la personne de l'élégante Holly, raffinée et secrète ; l'autre, de Mitsy, descendante d'immigrés russes, la rebelle jamais rassurée.
Et les ennuis commencent. Disons plutôt les inquiétudes de l'amour, maladresses et malentendus, effusions et alarmes, comme s'il fallait se faire un petit peu mal pour apprécier son bonheur, dans un monde favorisé que l'auteur de Frank et Billy, figure emblématique du Manhattan des années 1980, nous dépeint avec un humour tendre et complice.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Classics, Chick Lit, Book Club

281 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 12, 1978

Reviews

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

halle said this book is the 70s equivalent of sally rooney, and she was completely right.

https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...

this is the kind of book that is so enjoyable for every second it makes you want to go back and lower the rating of everything you've read of late.

it is so funny and so precise and so clever, and a page will have a random unshakable description that is so goddamn weird and right. i fell completely in love with these characters and with this book, and as the end of it approached i read slower and slower in the hopes i'd discover 100 or so pages had been stuck together and hiding.

just perfect.

bottom line: thank you halle!

[Julie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love had to do with flexing your personality to see what it might attract.

I have a couple of friends who have insisted upon dating during this pandemic. I don't know if a determination to meet new, romantic partners during lockdowns, social distancing and the potential spread of contagion is foolhardy or courageous, but I can contribute that these particular dating experiences have certainly been interesting for me, voyeur that I am.

Several good stories have been shared with me, but I think that my favorite, thus far, is one from a dear friend who met an attractive looking man online, then met him out for coffee. Only a few minutes into their first date, they discovered that they had radically different opinions about masks and vaccinations and, from what I can remember, neither one of them ever sat down in a chair before parting in anger.

Dating has always offered us challenges, regardless of our ages, regardless of our backgrounds. We don't come to the table alone; when we go out on a date, we bring our families, our religions, our professions, our appearances, our baggage, too.

So, dating in New York City in the mid-1970s wasn't easy, either, despite the absence of masks and volatile conversations about antibodies and immunity.

But, as I've already mentioned above, I'm a voyeur when it comes to stories, and I could get really schmaltzy here, telling you how much I enjoyed following these characters around, and keeping an eye on them through the open windows.

To be honest. . . it's a novel about nothing, really. Unless you count dating, getting married, getting divorced, having a baby, working and making friendships as something. They're something, right? Oh, wait. They're everything!

I think I could have gone on reading about these couples forever. They never got old for me.

This novel was an excellent reminder for me not to judge someone looking for a new friendship or a new love, even during a loathsome pandemic.

When we are healthy, we seek connections with others. Some say it is our entire reason for being.

[Glenn Sumi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth book I’ve read by the wonderful writer Laurie Colwin, who died tragically young – she was only 48 years old – in 1992. Her work, although a little dated, deserves to be discovered by a new generation.

I see I’ve rated all of her books 4 stars. They’re uniformly modest and lovely, but perhaps not life-changing.

Her fictional subject (she also wrote bestselling books about food) tends to be romance in urban settings among middle- and upper-middle-class people. She cherishes happy endings – which perhaps is why the word “happy” figures not just in this book’s title but also in Family Happiness.

I don’t really know how to describe Happy All The Time. Third-cousins Guido Morris and Vincent Cardworthy find themselves drawn to two very different women, Guido to the laconic, spontaneous Holly Sturgis, Vincent to the pessimistic Misty Berkowitz, who’s radically unlike anyone else he’s ever dated.

The book chronicles the couples’ ups and occasional downs in a very idealized, and mostly white, New York City. Holly suddenly packs up and moves to France for months because she finds her life with Guido is becoming too predictable; Misty describes herself as a porcupine, with sharp quills on the outside to protect her soft and vulnerable belly.

There’s more than a touch of fantasy and wish-fulfilment in Colwin’s plots, but she’s sharply observant. If she were a painter, she wouldn’t work on a large canvas, she’d be a miniaturist, capturing shadow and light, the tilt of a head, a still life just so.

There are many laugh-out-loud moments, particularly involving some of the colourful characters on the book’s periphery: a no-fuss office assistant; a spacey academic who’s “completely interior” (i.e., she doesn’t talk much, she feels); an eccentric uncle who made money writing a novelty song; a narcissistic aunt who once starred on a soap opera. Colwin even makes a Greek florist into a memorable figure.

If you enjoy big plot twists and suspense, look elsewhere. Colwin’s books are like a freshly baked croissant served with a carafe of French press coffee on the terrace. Comforting. Delicious. Something to savour and contemplate for a little while.

[el · Rating 5 out of 5]

as someone currently burnt out on the contemporary romance format (trope-style marketing, mmcs who are only ever allowed to scowl/growl/be huge & manly, insta-attraction and sexual chemistry above all else to supplement threadbare "banter" and pop culture references, a three-act structure with a rushed third-act breakup), happy all the time was a much-needed BREATH OF FRESH AIR.

before i jump in, i want to warn you NOT to pick up this book if:
• you for some reason prefer first person to third person narratives or just straight-up claim to hate third person pov (i have never understood this stance.......EVERY pov can be done well in the right hands. GROW UP AND GET LITERATE!).
• you like romances that feel modern/timeless. this will not be that.
• you need aloof, emotionally unavailable, hypermasculine mmcs who steer/control the romance.
• your threshold for quirky fmcs is laughably low and/or you're stricter about flawed women characters than you are men.
• you prefer your romances heavy on the dialogue and/or dislike description/introspection, ESPECIALLY detailed, extraneous, trivial description (i.e. outfits, living spaces and the objects in them, family member anecdotes, job politics/world-building, place-writing, etc.).
• you care more about (or prefer to read) the getting-together than the domestic, settling-in sort of chemistry between couples.

now that i've weeded out the losers, onto what i absolutely LOVED about this book!

i am always on the hunt for genre fiction that's clever, well-written (the prose in this is delicious!), has a strict sense of pacing (everything in this book is there because it needs to be; there's no fluff or filler), and tends towards the off-beat or unconventional in its character-writing and plot structure.

i'm not sure if this would have been advertised as a romance at the time of its publication (1971). laurie colwin got her start publishing writing through the new yorker, so this novel will obviously be a step above the very soapy, vintage harlequin romances that feature breasts and abs on the cover. the new yorker is well-known for its insane editorial standards; in essence, colwin is exactly the kind of writer you'd expect to see in their fiction section (white, middle-class, uber stylish prose that's concerned with aesthetics and history and literature and art-making). the set-dressings here are smart because colwin has always had to be.

her work tends more heavily towards description and an impeccable transitional sense than it does the granular scene-writing contemporary romance readers will have come to expect from their novels. this isn't a point A to point B to point C style of writing. time skips are utilized, and for good reason.

in happy all the time, we're given two couples and they get together pretty quickly. even still, colwin's attention to pacing and prettiness never lets up—the novel proceeds at breakneck speeds, continues cultivating its warmth and humor, and frequently pulls out all the stops for absurd side characters. there are a ton of kooky side characters in this (which i love in my romances....YES, give me throwaway punchlines!!!!! give me character anecdotes with no larger narrative purpose than VIBES!).

this is the 70s, so there are a ton of anachronistic quirks that i got a kick out of (everyone is smoking cigarettes all over the place, they have strange and outmoded names, drugs are pretty normalized and so is drinking at every meal, secondary characters say "far out!" and make fun of their love interests for veganism). the worst of the quirks is the ongoing thread of orientalism throughout (colwin venerates and others east asian aesthetics/food/objects/etc. by turns). the best of the quirks is the way she's written her two main heroines.

i don't know how much of this i chalk up to the sexual politics of the 70s vs how much i chalk up to colwin's personal sensibility (i'll have to read more from her to find out), but her women characters are so much quirkier than her men (more interesting, more rich, more compelling in every way). and i didn't mind that gender disparity! i'm more used to the inverse (hollow, featureless fmcs who exist as vessels for the white cishet women assumed to be reading the novel vs dark, gritty, quirky men).

here, colwin's women are written in such a way that you might almost mistake them for contemporary mmcs: they're allergic to love and courtship disgusts them, they bury their true mushy feelings behind steel walls and an expressionless affect, they growl, they make fun of and bully their much softer, much sappier love interests, they pick up and run away when the pure domestic bliss of their lives gets to be too much. in essence, they are the POLAR OPPOSITE of what we see in the female leads of commercial romance today. i felt like i woke up in an alternate dream universe—and i never wanted to leave. wonderful (gender stereotype) reversals occur in the vein of:

"Goddamn it, Holly. Doesn't any of this mean anything to you?"

"Any of what?"

"We just spent our first night together and here you are doing the goddamned puzzle."

"I do the puzzle every Sunday," said Holly. "And I was assuming that this was the first of many nights. Besides, I find all this too nerve-racking and so I like to put things into the most normal context. I don't want one of those strung-out love affairs that makes you lose weight and feel awful all the time."

There was nothing Guido could say to this. The first of many nights, she said. That phrase, in her cool, measured voice, undid him.

so pathetic. so desperate. so easily pleased and placated. GIVE ME TEN MORE OF GUIDO. AND VINCENT WHILE WE'RE AT IT. the main men in this book are incredibly STUPID and SUBMISSIVE and IN LOVE and READY TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING TO GET A KISS (or a drop of attention). it is truly mind-boggling how immediately they fall for these women, who are, by comparison, relatively cold to them and frequently prone to rejection. glorious, glorious writing....

(also, the above happens on page 19 of my pocket paperback....like i said, brisk pacing, but never boring in spite of it!)

this is also a very silly book. sometimes it's funny on accident, but more often the humor is intentional. there is something about it that reminds me of vintage romance movies—maybe the soft edges, the sense that our four main characters will never encounter much in the way of strife, that their world is bokeh lights and musical montages during the champagne portion of dinner and little else. the cozy slice-of-life atmosphere was offset, for me, by the eccentric character-writing and the constant punchlines. it can't be a hallmark movie for that reason, even if it occasionally behaves or looks like one. above all else, it is an astonishingly smart, well-contained novel. 4.5/5, it lost me for about 5 seconds during the second half, then i was back in as new secondary characters swam to the fore.

some highlights:

"You should be more like me," [Misty] said.

"I should?" said Vincent. "In what way?"

"I am the scourge of God."

Vincent sat still, listening to his heart beat. Misty was smiling again. Her smile revealed to him that his behavior was far from random. He was in love.

LOSERRRRRRRR! i love it.

"I'm sorry, Guido. I was just trying to cheer you up. But Misty says some very interesting things about things."

"I don't want to hear another interesting thing said by a woman," said Guido. "They're all far too interesting."

vincent and guido are so stupid. who talks like this? MOREEEEE.

The next morning, Misty woke to the sight of Vincent's flowers and of Vincent himself, who was lying on his side, smiling at her.

"'O night, O night divine,'" sang Vincent. "That's my Christmas voice," he added.

Misty considered him, as if she had wakened to find a fish in her bed and was pondering how it had gotten there and what to do with it.

"What time is it?" she growled.

"It's seven-thirty," said Vincent. "I am now going to make you a cup of coffee and bring it to you in bed. You won't like that at all, will you?"

"Not much," said Misty.

perfect. no notes.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Laurie Colwin's Happy All the Time was a balm through a couple of turbulent days.

Light-hearted in style with a few insights into the complexities of human nature, this novel follows 4 characters who meet, fall in love, and negotiate through their relationships. It has been a while since I read a novel full of likeable characters. Colwin writes of love--romantic and otherwise; she explores the themes of friendship, courtship, and the early years of marriage.

The prose is wonderful and Colwin assuredly brings her characters to life.

Publication 1978

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely delightful book! It is funny; it is endearing; it is a look at relationships and the insecurities and messiness that go along with them.
This book is all about the people. We meet Guido and Vincent, third cousins and best friends. They are nearing thirty.
“ With their futures somewhat assured, they lolled around Cambridge and wondered whom they would marry.”

Laurie Colwin knows how to write people and relationships. Relationships are not always perfect. They are tough. Nothing is easy when it comes to love- really knowing that person takes time and patience.

I honestly fell in love with our four main characters. Each was unique. I loved watching their relationships grow and change, as couples and as friends. All the peripheral characters were memorable as well.

Vincent definitely stood out for me. He was so positive and happy- actually a lot like my husband:) Here is a bit of advice he gave:
“ Just be married. That’s how you get used to it. Where on earth did you get this sense of profound gloom from, anyway?”

I hated saying goodbye to these two couples. They brought a smile to my face and a joy to my heart.
Many thanks to GR friends Julie Grippo and Suzy, whose reviews introduced me to this author and book. I definitely plan to read more of her books.

Published: 1978

[Sava (Fang Runin’s version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

Such a love-ly book.

I really loved Guido and Holly, but as I read, I understood that I adored Vincent and Misty so much more. They were just the most well-written and developed.

Misty is a mood, and the best character in this book.

[Joe Vallese · Rating 4 out of 5]

My experience reading this novel was really strange. When I was a senior in high school, I read a short story called "An Old Fashioned Romance" by Colwin in my AP class. I remember being struck, and a little disappointed, by how bright and optimistic the story was - up to that point, I'd understood stories as ominous and never happy. Then I read her author bio and it said that she graduated from Bard in the 70s and, I of course, was going to attend Bard that summer. Long story short, I was always struck by the title "Happy All The Time" and intended to read this novel, but never got the chance. Then a week ago, I was at the Strand and when I turned around, while looking for another book, I found the Laurie Colwin section. I don't know if I was just swept up in the moment and the coincidence, but I just really loved this novel. I don't think I've smiled so much and thought to myself, "God I wish I'd written that line" so frequently in the span of one book. There's not much plot, and the writing is kind of like a 1980s Jane Austen set in Manhattan, but there's something about this book that just entranced me. I've also never read someone so accurately describe what it feels like to fall in love.

I don't know - this isn't the type of book that I'd normally read, and I don't think I'll read any of her other novels (though I want to read her "Home Cooking" essay collections) because I'm not sure what I felt for this book will carry over into those. Or maybe it will. But I just don't want to find out. I do know, though, that regardless of this weird, seven year old preoccupation I had with lazily trying to locate "Happy All The Time," I finally did, and for 230 pages, I was just what the title promised.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy I picked this up again! I love all the attention Colwin is getting with the re-publication of all ten of her books in 2021. It's been nine years since I last read Happy All the Time. This time I noticed the narrowness of the milieu in which she writes (domestic dramas about fairly well-off New Yorkers), but that didn't stop me from enjoying it all over again. I always wonder how her writing would have evolved if she hadn't died at 48 in 1992.

This is a wonderful NY Times Book Review essay at the release of her 10 novels in 2021, including this great photo from 1974.



Why I'm rereading this: I need a happy book, and this one has always fit the bill. Third time around for me - I love Laurie Colwin!

Pure delight! The story of two friends, Guido and Vincent, who live and work in New York City. They find love, marry (Holly and Misty, respectively) and experience the hopes, dreams, anxieties and challenges associated with moving into adulthood. That sounds sort of boring, but this book is anything but. As one reviewer said, this book takes up where most love stories leave off - at the settling in and finding contentment stage. Touching, quirky and funny, it made me happy!!

This is the second time I've read Happy All the Time. Written in 1978, its themes are both universal and specific to the place, time and these four people. I love Laurie Colwin! Time to re-read her other works.

[el · Rating 1 out of 5]

i may have been able to experience this supposed “delight” of a novel, if i were the kind of person who could see past the (racist) fetishisation of women in literature.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little novel is, by far, the happiest, most delightful little gem you will ever read. I originally read it in the late 1970's when it was written. I always remembered that I loved it, but had long forgotten the story and its characters. I requested that my library find a copy for me. Luckily, they rounded one up from several counties away! I am smiling like a fool, having just now finished it again. There is no other novel I have ever read, and I believe I have read thousands in 60+ years of life, (not that I was yet able to read 60 years ago) that has left me beaming like an idiot. Colwin, who sadly died years ago at a young age, was such a gifted writer. Her characters are so well drawn, so real, so lovable even with their flaws, that I wish I could be part of their inner circle and beautiful friendships.
Guido and Vincent, third cousins and best friends, are two good, decent, smart, witty guys who fall, in turn, for 2 quirky, resistant, but kindhearted women. Each couple finds their way to a good life together. The cousins and their wives are friends and share so much, but also hold back. Guido's lovely wife, Holly, finds the need to withdraw from time to time, whether to Paris to be alone for a few weeks, or to a monastery to regroup for a bit, before heading back to a busy life in NYC to embrace her married life once again. And Vincent, the son of wealthy New Englanders, has to be the nicest of them all. He pursues and wins the heart of the very reluctant Misty, a Jewish girl who was also raised with great comfort, but who seems to take on the weight of the world, worrying about things which might happen, but which never do. Through Vincent, Misty learns to trust in love and to be...well, HAPPY!
The couples, with some very interesting and funny cousins who come along to join the fray, delight in life as young adults in a world that is just now becoming a part of history. The mid-t0-late 1970's were modern days (relative to the length of civilization) and yet there were no cell phones, no texting, no internet. They left each other notes, used pay phones, and couldn't be so terribly connected all the time, which can be a downside, for sure, to relationships in society these days. They heated milk on the stove to add to coffee to warm it up, because there were no microwave ovens in every apartment in NYC the way there are today. There was talk of this tool called a "calculator" and of recycling and reusing sludge to power a lawn mover, which I thought was very modern for that era. But mostly, there is talk, and laughter, and love which embraces you and makes YOU feel loved. Find a copy of this book. Hang onto it for 30 years and then re-read it. I wish I had kept my original copy. I can still picture its cover and feel its smoothness, but I must have loaned it to someone decades ago and never got it back. Keep this little gem as the antidote to all that ails or saddens you! It deserves 10 stars. I am STILL beaming and feel like skipping around the room from the joy in my heart. Thanks to Laurie Colwin for leaving this treasure behind. The world lost a great writer with her death!

[Victoria Resco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro en el que no pasa nada y que sin embargo habla de todo aquello que hace que la vida valga la pena.

Al principio me fue difícil conectar con la historia, tiene momentos en los que desvaría de más, pero es un poco esa forma de mostrar la vida -desde su locura e incoherencia- la que le da su belleza a esta historia.

En este libro encontramos la historia de dos primos que son mejores amigos. Seguimos sus vidas como adultos, sus percances y victorias en el amor, las intrascendencias de los vínculos que forman. Es una lectura agradable y ligera que consigue que quieras a todos los personajes con sus particularidades.

Destaco particularmente el debate de uno de los protagonistas Guido, que lucha constantemente con la inmensidad del amor que siente por su esposa y lo difícil que le es aceptar que ella lo ama en igual medida, porque sus formas de amar son diferentes. Sus formas de ser, son diferentes y eso es el motivo por el que la ama tanto como el motivo por el que duda de su amor. Me gustó cómo se planteaba esto, porque entender que no todos demostramos lo que sentimos de la misma manera y que no todos transitamos las emociones por igual, es uno de los grandes desafíos a los que me vengo enfrentando y este libro hizo un trabajo maravilloso al ponerlo en palabras.

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I found the women in this novel to be awful, and there was nothing "happy" about it.

I will marry you, but never actually say "I love you" or any such drivel. But my hair is always perfectly trimmed, and I'm also an excellent cook.
And I will marry you, but I must warn you that tragedy befalls me at every corner. Life is terrible.

And they lived happily ever after?!

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up I think. A short, cozy story about a cast of urban oddballs and their friendships and romantic relationships. Zany dialogue, lots of conversations over coffee and dinners, and fun examinations of married life.

[Letitia | Bookshelfbyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coined as the literary equivalent of comfort food and I agree.

'Happy All the Time' by Laurie Colwin centers on Guido and Vincent, childhood best friends and third cousins who fall for Holly and Misty—two women they are equally enamored with and baffled by. The story centers on their relationships and explores the aspects most love stories omit—the bumps and ordinary small pleasures and frustrations that go into settling down but still lead to a happy ending.

I've never been one to over-romanticize life, but I'm not a cynic either. But I find it hard to find stories that navigate that soft spot without being either a snoozefest or relying on unrealistically dramatic plots and traps to keep your attention. Laurie has a gift for showcasing honest, witty, quirky people navigating relatable issues like learning to adapt, independence within a relationship, and insecurities.

Between the two couples, we see how they make a relationship work with someone with a different outlook. Both couples are unalike and help each other with their blind spots. I honestly loved how, since it centered on Guido and Vincent, we see the men vulnerable and relying on each other and their friend's partner for advice for their relationship.

The dialogue might be one of my favorite parts, and I'm now realizing how meaningful good dialogue is to me. They are witty and wise and show the characters as complex yet loveable, including the supporting characters.

Originally published in 1978, and it was like a breath of fresh air to read a story without mentioning the distractions of modern dating stories, such as texting, social media stalking, etc. I'm so chronically online that I cannot be reading about people who are, too.

I saw someone compare it to a 70s equivalent of Sally Rooney, which, in hindsight, I could see why I liked it. It's also great for fans of Katherine Heiny and those who enjoy stories like 84, Charing Cross Road.

A comforting, witty and life-affirming story that is "profoundly unprofound" which made it a lovely read.

If you have any books you consider comfort novels, plz share!

[Rodica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love beautiful things. I love stories told stylishly. This is a charming, intelligent and superbly witty book about intelligent and stylish characters. I got it through Prime reading, but I’ll probably end up buying it just to make sure I have my own copy available, for whenever I feel like rereading it.

Loved it, pure and simple. First of all, Colwin has the gift or writing about serious deep stuff in a lighthearted manner. She is also a master at describing her characters without judging and without boring you, the reader, with tons of useless background information. Her collection of secondary characters is described with minimum words for maximum impact and all of them seem alive and perfectly real, even if not realistic.

It’s not a novel about a NY that once existed. Because I somewhat doubt it actually existed as described by Colwin. The story is about a narrow slice of NY-ers - quite financially secure, but also intellectual and very educated, who spend a lot of time having discussions about non-mundane stuff in a very entertaining and elevated manner.

The story is centered on two friends and their love interests. It’s not a romance, not in a classical sense, but it’s a story about love and friendship and all that good stuff that matters.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I could have finished this had I soldiered on, I gave myself permission to abandon it. Life is too short to sludge through books you don't enjoy.

I don't know if it was someone else's comment that this book reminded them of a mix between The Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany's or just the vagaries of my own mind, but I kept thinking Happy All the Time was set somewhere in the 1920's to 1940's time period. Then, as I was reading, a comment about computers or something would remind me it was written and set in the late 1970's and I'd get all confuzzled. On top of that, I didn't like or understand any of the characters or their motivations.

Meh. Not for me.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming. A Seinfeld episode set in the 70's. Read this book!

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last month Old school librarian suggested I read HAPPY ALL THE TIME by Laurie Colwin. I had not heard of the book or the author before and was very interested to discover what was in store. Fortunately, my local library had a copy readily available. Originally published back in 1978, HAPPY ALL THE TIME was the third of Colwin's five novels. Along with a few short story and cooking collections, those novels made up the bulk of her writing. It seems strange now that I'd never heard of her before as her novels have none of them ever gone out of print and it appears she still has quite a large and devoted following. A fact I completely understand and that makes me quite happy now, having read this perfectly delightful novel. Thank goodness for others' book recommendations, for I am quite sure I would never have stumbled across this treat of a book on my own.

Guido Morris. Holly Sturgis. Vincent Cardworthy. Misty Berkowitz. These are the rather enchanting names of the four principal players in our little drama. Guido and Vincent have been cousins and best friends since as far back as either of them can remember. Gifted with both privilege and personality, talent and wit, the two men have somehow managed to make it past graduate school and into bona fide adulthood without ever forming permanent or lasting attachments with members of the opposite sex. But all of that is about to change when they walk past a young woman with black hair and a composed face, sitting on a bench, and Guido falls instantly and madly in love. But Holly is not looking for love and Guido finds himself in the unfamiliar agony of being in love with someone who appears all but indifferent to him. Meanwhile, Vincent is coming to terms with his scattered and perplexing love life the hard way. Unsure of how to change things, he walks into the office one day and meets Misty Berkowitz, a cantankerous young woman of Jewish extraction who loathes and distrusts everything Vincent represents. And--just like Guido--Vincent is gone in one fell swoop. But like the lovely Holly (even though the two women are night and day incarnate), Misty has no interest in being wooed. What are these two earnest young men to do in order to convince the loves of their lives that they are, in fact, meant for each other?

Readers, I was utterly charmed by this book. It is a slim, unassuming volume to be sure. But within its pages is true loveliness. HAPPY ALL THE TIME reads like Annie Hall and one of those old Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn confections had a lovechild. There was just no way I was escaping its spell. The emotions are high and fraught with meaning, the witty banter is sophisticated in the extreme, and the costumes are elegant and timeless. Here's one of my favorite interactions between the likable Vincent and the irascible Misty:

Misty woke abruptly and felt awful. She groped around for her glasses, couldn't find them, and sat very still, looking unfocused and bereft, as if she had awakened from a kind dream to find merciless and cruel reality waiting for her. Vincent thought he understood unhappiness, but he was not sure if this was it. He sat beside her and took her hand.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he said. "I can't bear to see you this way."

She shrugged her shoulders.

Vincent asked, "Does it help if I tell you I love you, or does it make it worse?"

She began to cry. It was the second time in two days, but its effect on Vincent was not dimmed by repetition.

"Okay," she said. "Here goes."

His heart seemed to stop. This was it, but what was it?

"It's not what you're thinking," said Misty, looking at his stricken face. "It's worse. You're stuck with me. This is your last chance to bail out, Vincent. I don't think we were made for each other. Maybe you were made for me, but I was made for Attila the Hun."

"Are you telling me that life with you will be a living hell?"

"I am giving you one last chance to go off and find some nicer girl," said Misty. "Someone who knows her way around a sailboat."

"That's a disgusting thing to say. Last week you gave me a very compelling analysis on the workings of my stunning intellect. Now I'm supposed to take my intellect off and go sailing?"

And besides that, there's the Jewish question," said Misty.

"Oh, that," said Vincent. "I don't notice either of us being religious. Besides, my Aunt Marcia is Jewish. She married Uncle Walter. She's everybody's favorite relative. What's the big deal?"

"Our backgrounds are different," said Misty.

"This is not worth discussing," said Vincent. "We've done very well up till now, and we'll continue to do well."

"I'm not like your other flames," said Misty. "I don't know anything about dog breeding."

"Yes, you do," said Vincent. "The night we were comparing eccentric relatives, you told me that your Aunt Harriet wanted to cross Welsh corgis and Doberman pinschers and get a vicious but barkless guard dog for sneak attacks. That will be quite sufficient. Throw in my Aunt Marcia and you can see that we are ideally suited."

Tears slid out of the corners of Misty's eyes. She put her arms around his neck.

"I'm just scared," she said. "That's all."

"That isn't all," said Vincent. "What are you scared of?"

"I don't know."

"What else don't you know?"

That's all," said Misty.

"I assume that means that you have given a good deal of analytical thought to your feelings about me."

"My feelings about you appear to transcend analysis."

"Wonderful," said Vincent. "What are they?"

"I just love you," she mumbled.

"Speak up, please," said Vincent.

"I said, I just love you. Isn't that banal?"

"What a relief," said Vincent, smiling.

Well? Don't you want to go and find this book right now? I love Vincent and Misty so much. All four of them are memorable and layered and funny and offbeat, but I ended up responding most of all to Misty. Must be that inherent awkwardness and the tendency to analyze the people around me in my head, rather than going up and talking to them that we share. Either way, Misty is a kindred spirit and I sat there rapt as she worked through her feelings and came to grips with the fact that she loved someone who appeared to be so wrong for her, someone who--deep down--she felt rather sure would up and walk away someday when he woke up and realized just who he'd married. In this book, it's not about what happens in the end, it's about how they each get there. And it's worth it, I tell you. It's light and lighthearted, told in elegant, if occasionally fussy prose, and it will lift your heart and leave you perfectly sated.

[eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

happy all the time feels like a warm hug at the end of an emotionally draining day. it’s like that peek of sunshine after a rain shower. it’s warm, it’s effervescent, it’s cozy, it’s radiant. i think this might have been the easiest five stars i’ve ever given in my life. it completely transcended my expectations. reading it felt like a perfect palate cleanser from the sadness and monotony of my previous reads. vincent, guido, holly, and misty are my family now. they’re so lovable and simultaneously relatable. they feel like genuine human beings with complex emotions, different thought processes, personalities, and love languages. they feel like people i’d walk past on the street instead of paragraphs on pieces of paper. i was truly immersed in their world and now i’m a little sad to leave it. i will always believe that is the mark of a good book with excellent writing, though. and i can now say with confidence that i am completely and wholly in love with laurie colwin’s writing style. i imagine i will visit more of her work very soon (much to my excitement). my friends better prepare for how sick of me they’re going to get because i will plug and recommend this book until my dying breath.

[John McAndrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been years since I read this book, but it has stayed with me all this time, and I'm thinking it may be time to re-read it. It's a story about couples who get along and are "happy all the time." Sounds boring, right? That's because our concept of a happy relationship is both one-dimensional and an utter fantasy. These folks argue, have problems and crises . . . and get through them together, with a baseline of respect and affection for each other. Not easy, not Disneyfied, but real. If recent movies, books and memes have driven you mad with their unrealistic and sappy portrayals, this will be an antidote. You know love isn't like that. So did Colwin.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A treat of a buddy read with Jen! It reminds me so much of Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Hope to add more to this after Jen and I chat.

[christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some writers who are good enough to disregard plot in favor of a collection of quirky characters slinging each other with cute conversation. See also: Laurie Colwin, whose 1978 novel Happy All the Time is simply the story of third cousins tip-toeing from bachelorhood to couplehood and the difficult targets who change everything they believe to be true about women. What, in theory, could reek of a banter-y rom-com with a “Gilmore Girls” preciousness is smart and lively and potentially something that might have inspired the writer Charles Baxter -- the last person I decided could write whatever the hell he wanted.

Guido is a romantic, tapped to run the family’s nonprofit arts organization. He meets Holly outside of a museum and goes gaga for her in the least subtle way, describing her for Vincent as though she was a piece from one of the collections inside. She doesn’t find this cute. They continue to cross paths and eventually she agrees to go out with him. Holly is light on emoting and poor Guido never really knows where he stands with her. When he asks her to marry him, she goes away for a week to remove herself from the situation and gain some perspective. Though she promises to return to him, he ends up wandering around sullen with a stained aura.

Vincent is slower to find a life partner and instead has a series of not-so serious relationships with unavailable women, hearty women, women who love horses. He meets Misty while working at a think tank: him in garbage, her in linguistics. Her only romantic experience has left her soul scabbed over and he is forced to take a friends first approach and woo her first slowly, then suddenly. Like Holly, she eventually cracks.

On the sidelines are a slew of caricatures including a super efficient secretary and a hippie, vibe-feeling fill-in secretary, uncles and aunts with colorful pasts, a vegetarian dancer, and another cousin who gives Misty a bit of a core shake.  

Colwin’s strength is bursts of hilarious dialoge. When Vincent buys flowers for Misty, he says to the seller: “Give me something that looks like the thing they hang on prize-winning horses.” During another scene the crew is dining at a vegetarian-friendly restaurant and Vincent says, holding up a vegetable punctured with holes, ���Do you eat this or did it fall off someone’s shoe?”

Storywise, you get something akin to watching Sims characters wander between home and work and dinner parties. It’s very light on conflict and there is a sense that all will end well. Instead of dips and valleys there are a series of speed bumps one’s tail bone would barely even register. Still, it feels so good to read it, even if it does trap your face in dopey grin mode.

[Kim Fay · Rating 5 out of 5]

How is it that I have not reviewed this book before now? For many years, it was a tradition that for the first book of the new year, I would read "Happy All The Time." This story of two couples is so light-filled and nuanced and clever -- I simply take great pleasure in reading it and enjoy being reminded that life can be quite lovely, indeed. Laurie Colwin has a dry (and subtle wicked wit), which is what gives this novel its depth. Yes, the world portrayed in this book is sheltered, but sometimes a reader needs to take shelter. So Guido and Holly, Vincent and Misty, thank you for getting my 2012 off to a terrific start!

Yes, I read Happy All the Time again this year. And I will read it again and again and again in the years to come. This year, I reread it because Laurie Colwin, and this novel specifically, play a special role in my upcoming novel Kate & Frida. This year, I also reread it trying to remember the first time, in my early 20s, buying a Penguin Contemporary American Fiction edition because an agent told me my writing reminded him of Colwin, reading it, and falling in love with the story. And with one of the main characters, Holly, who lived the way I wanted to live one day. With intention. With a desire to make the world around her a beautiful place for the people in her life. I'm much older now, and the novel changes with each read, as my perspective changes, but it never fails to speak to me of love and quiet joy.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurie Colwin is my comfort food. She makes me want to curl up under my favorite blanket with a pot of tea and homemade scones with jam and read all of her books until I'm thoroughly satisfied. This is, at least, my third reading of Happy All The Time and it hasn't diminished in any way over time. Colwin writes about love and relationships and family and friendship in a quirky and endearing way. Her novels are always calming and there is always a happy ending. Not a mushy, romance-y type of happy ending but a lovely, misty sort of happy. This may not be to everyone's taste but her books are exactly the kind of escape I want.

I'm not a re-reader so it speaks volumes that I turn to her books again and again when I need something that I know will make me feel good. I adore Holly and Guido and Misty and Vincent and the cast of characters that surrounds them. I'll be journeying back to their version of 1970's New York City before too long, I have no doubt.

10/6/23
I just reread my favorite book of all time for the umpteenth time. It has been such a comfort to be back with my favorite characters. I couldn’t love this book more if I tried.

[Derek Driggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’ll love this book if you love Jane Austen for her people-watching humor, her quirky couples, her stand-offs of the sexes. You’ll love it if you are a sucker for the seventies and the eighties and “Boomer” love stories. You’ll love it if you believe that every relationship is its own organism and shouldn’t be laden with expectations based on some slippery standard of “normal.” Just all around cute and quirky and fun human stuff. I wish I knew about this author before.

[Noura · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is very apt.

(Just don't go into this thinking Colwin is "a contemporary Jane Austen")

Hands down the best moment was:
"Half an hour ago you said that you would marry me.”
“Only because you got down on your knee in the middle of the street and I was afraid you would be run over by a taxi.”
“Can we announce it?” Vincent said.
“That you were almost run over?”

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so happy that this charming, insightful, and absolutely delightful novel has been reissued. Laurie Colwin was a brilliant writer and I only wish she’d had many more years and many more books.

Thank you to Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

[Kasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know I was supposed to find this funny and charming but I was just very bored. I almost gave up halfway through. I know she’s a beloved author but this did not work for me.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro perfecto. Amistad, amor, celos, inseguridad. Todo relatado sin drama y en profundidad.