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Happyland
Happy Masters is a megalomaniacal entrepreneur, a shrewd negotiator, and the mastermind behind Happy Girls, a phenomenally successful doll company. When she happens upon the sleepy village of Equinox, New York, she gets the idea that will transform her life and all the lives around her—to remake Equinox in her image, part retail mecca, part amusement park, part Stepfordian nightmare. In her quest to have it all, Happy will seduce, manipulate, or deceive anyone who gets in her way—including an unassuming mayor, a hapless college president, a grumpy barkeeper, a fiercely contrarian librarian, and the young women of tiny Equinox College. This entertaining satire explores what happens when fulfilling your dreams becomes a nightmare.
292 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
J. Robert Lennon
43 books288 followersJ. Robert Lennon is the author of three story collections and ten novels, and is co-editor of CRITICAL HITS, an anthology of writing on video games. He lives in Ithaca, New York.
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October 5, 2013
Author J.Robert Lennon struggled to get Happyland published–astonishing really when you consider just how good an author he is, but apparently publishers feared lawsuits for implied connections between the very fictional Happyland and the real life story of Pleasant Rowland and the town of Aurora, in New York state. In the introduction, Lennon explains his multiple thwarted attempts to get this novel published adding that “if you’d told me in 2003 that this novel wouldn’t be read in its entirety until 2013, I would probably have stopped writing it–and if you’d told me why, I might have sought out, at least for a while, a less heartbreaking profession than novel writing.”
This is clearly a satire, a work of fiction, and yes inspired by an idea. The author states that he didn’t intend to “write anything remotely controversial,” but he got an idea from real life and ran with it. Unfortunately, publishers were worried about “unthreatened lawsuits,” and when the author refused to change some of the story basics, the book was shelved, appearing only in serial form in Harper’s in 2006. What a great shame that a writer of Lennon’s calibre had to wait so long for the novel to make it to readers, but here it is at last, and it’s well worth the wait….
The main character of Happyland is middle-aged Happy Masters, married to millionaire mogul James Masters, and while the marriage ”dulled by familiarity” isn’t love-y in any sort of traditional sense, it’s successful mainly due to the fact that Happy and James lead their own lives and their meetings are infrequent, “explosive collisions, cataclysmic unleashings of pent-up emotion. Where once they argued, they now fought, open-handed and filthy-mouthed.“
Happy “founder, CEO and creative mastermind of Happy Girls, Inc” formed the doll company 25 years earlier when “weary of her duties as a bride of privilege,” she found a broken antique doll and began a collection. Happy’s sad childhood never included a doll, and this one, precious doll grew to a large, expensive collection, and then she formed Happy Dolls–a company which eventually included an entire line of historic dolls “decked out in period clothes,” and included storybooks with cheesy, abbreviated versions of history. No one could have predicted Happy’s phenomenal success. She intuited what children wanted–probably because her own childhood was spent in longing. Some of her dolls are so popular that “near riots” occur when stock runs low.
Some people overcome horrendous childhood experiences to become almost inhuman, and that’s Happy Masters in a word. Happy was an orphan, “raised by a bitter, alcoholic aunt,“ and she learned to “[endure] the inventive maliciousness of two older cousins.” This rags-to-riches story may sound a bit like Cinderella, and we’d expect a happy ending. In a way, Happy has that happy ending. When the novel opens, she’s attended the funeral of one of the cousins. Now they are both dead and Happy has lived to see her 2 of her 3 worst enemies placed 6 feet under. Aunt Missy, however, is still alive, as garrulous as ever, and a meeting at the graveside comes dangerously close to violence.
After the ugly, vicious scene with her aunt at the funeral, Happy drives around for a few hours to cool off. Her journey takes her to the small college town of Equinox, population 410, sleepy, pretty and quaint in its genteel decay and with a dark bizarre history. To Happy, it’s a “forlorn town, a dilapidated town: barely a town at all, just a few blocks clustered around a handful of cracked and dirty streets.” And it’s here as Happy looks around the town and its disinterested service population, that an idea takes root in her “toxic heart.” Equinox will become her next triumph, her ”Jerusalem.”
She begins by bossing around the local real estate agent and handing the astonished woman a check for a neglected mansion with a beautiful lake view. Then slowly and strategically, Happy approaches various business owners in Equinox. She begins by buying key operations–the inn, the beauty salon, the dusty corner market–initially offering overly generous sums of money, but then she starts to play dirty. Soon the town becomes divided over Happy’s plan to renovate Equinox making it some sort of glitzy tourist destination which will include a Happy Girl Museum. Most people who lived there were perfectly happy with the town the way it was, but a few people are thrilled to grab the money Happy offers for their anemic businesses.
And people in the bar had started taking sides. By and large the locals liked the idea–rumor had it Ken Pell had gotten more than a hundred grand for the market, which was probably three times what it was worth, and there were plenty of Equinoxians who would stab their own sisters for that kind of money. College people, on the other hand–professors–said they’d never sell. They liked Equinox because it was quaint and cheap and on the lake. They liked authenticity, which evidently meant hicks and greasers, and they disliked the rich, a category they apparently excused themselves from.
Locals, though: they liked the idea of some bigwig moving into town. They liked somebody spreading money around. They thought it would help.
Even the people who dislike and distrust Happy have no idea of the sort of person they are dealing with. Underneath the public persona of sweetness and a great understanding of children, the real Happy is a hard, driven and canny millionairess who will do whatever it takes to ‘own’ Equinox. That includes lying, cheating, and breaking the law–it’s all on the table over the battle for Equinox. Happy feels renewed by her new plan, and that makes her a very dangerous adversary. Anyone who has the guts or the lack of imagination to stand in Happy’s way discovers the hard way that this woman plays dirty. Happy’s plan of attack when it comes to her play to take over Equinox College–a small private institution for women is simply hilarious.
While Happyland has a delightful, wonderful plot, it’s also full of some great characters, including laconic, easy-going Bud and his tenacious wife, Jennifer who own the rundown gas station/ice cream kiosk. Jennifer makes a decent adversary for Happy as she’s every bit as mean and merciless but, unfortunately, lacks deep pockets. There’s also David who owns the local bar who would like to have principles if he could afford them, and ”middle-aged and languishing,” Reeve Tennyson, the college president who landed in this third-rate school after an embarrassing scandal that he walked into through his own ineptness. Aware that Equinox college really wanted to employ a woman, he’s a bit ashamed of working at Equinox College with its all female enrollment and the large percentage of lesbian students. He mostly hides out in his office, waits for his life to pass and thinks he’s hit rock bottom. It’s probably a good thing that he has no idea of the fate Happy Masters has in store for him.
Happyland with its dark, satiric humour is very different from the other two Lennon novels I’ve read Castle and Familiar. But even though Happyland is meant to be taken as a very funny story, there’s no shortage of moral questions raised in this quintessential American novel in which money and power trumps all other considerations. Does anyone as filthy rich as Happy Masters have the moral right to convert and co-opt an entire town to their own purpose? And then there’s the response of the townspeople–some business owners would really like to sell to Happy but they’re affronted by her attitude that everything and everyone is for sale, so they don’t immediately sell. This results in a war between locals and Happy, who’s a) determined to get her way and b) ready to bury her enemies in financial disaster. Happyland looks at the reaction of the average Citizen when he’s faced with being either figuratively bulldozed into oblivion by a multi-million dollar corporation or starved off the face of the earth by someone with near-endless financial resources. Taking a moral stand or arguing principles is a very expensive position to maintain as several townspeople find out the hard way. Then there’s Happy–a woman who possesses many admirable character traits but they’ve been trumped by her own moral corrosion and steady diet of endless power and money. Finally on the meta-level, there’s author J. Robert Lennon who refused to compromise his principles when it came to altering some of the story basics, and he had to wait ten years for this book to appear in novel form.
review copy
This is clearly a satire, a work of fiction, and yes inspired by an idea. The author states that he didn’t intend to “write anything remotely controversial,” but he got an idea from real life and ran with it. Unfortunately, publishers were worried about “unthreatened lawsuits,” and when the author refused to change some of the story basics, the book was shelved, appearing only in serial form in Harper’s in 2006. What a great shame that a writer of Lennon’s calibre had to wait so long for the novel to make it to readers, but here it is at last, and it’s well worth the wait….
The main character of Happyland is middle-aged Happy Masters, married to millionaire mogul James Masters, and while the marriage ”dulled by familiarity” isn’t love-y in any sort of traditional sense, it’s successful mainly due to the fact that Happy and James lead their own lives and their meetings are infrequent, “explosive collisions, cataclysmic unleashings of pent-up emotion. Where once they argued, they now fought, open-handed and filthy-mouthed.“
Happy “founder, CEO and creative mastermind of Happy Girls, Inc” formed the doll company 25 years earlier when “weary of her duties as a bride of privilege,” she found a broken antique doll and began a collection. Happy’s sad childhood never included a doll, and this one, precious doll grew to a large, expensive collection, and then she formed Happy Dolls–a company which eventually included an entire line of historic dolls “decked out in period clothes,” and included storybooks with cheesy, abbreviated versions of history. No one could have predicted Happy’s phenomenal success. She intuited what children wanted–probably because her own childhood was spent in longing. Some of her dolls are so popular that “near riots” occur when stock runs low.
Some people overcome horrendous childhood experiences to become almost inhuman, and that’s Happy Masters in a word. Happy was an orphan, “raised by a bitter, alcoholic aunt,“ and she learned to “[endure] the inventive maliciousness of two older cousins.” This rags-to-riches story may sound a bit like Cinderella, and we’d expect a happy ending. In a way, Happy has that happy ending. When the novel opens, she’s attended the funeral of one of the cousins. Now they are both dead and Happy has lived to see her 2 of her 3 worst enemies placed 6 feet under. Aunt Missy, however, is still alive, as garrulous as ever, and a meeting at the graveside comes dangerously close to violence.
After the ugly, vicious scene with her aunt at the funeral, Happy drives around for a few hours to cool off. Her journey takes her to the small college town of Equinox, population 410, sleepy, pretty and quaint in its genteel decay and with a dark bizarre history. To Happy, it’s a “forlorn town, a dilapidated town: barely a town at all, just a few blocks clustered around a handful of cracked and dirty streets.” And it’s here as Happy looks around the town and its disinterested service population, that an idea takes root in her “toxic heart.” Equinox will become her next triumph, her ”Jerusalem.”
She begins by bossing around the local real estate agent and handing the astonished woman a check for a neglected mansion with a beautiful lake view. Then slowly and strategically, Happy approaches various business owners in Equinox. She begins by buying key operations–the inn, the beauty salon, the dusty corner market–initially offering overly generous sums of money, but then she starts to play dirty. Soon the town becomes divided over Happy’s plan to renovate Equinox making it some sort of glitzy tourist destination which will include a Happy Girl Museum. Most people who lived there were perfectly happy with the town the way it was, but a few people are thrilled to grab the money Happy offers for their anemic businesses.
And people in the bar had started taking sides. By and large the locals liked the idea–rumor had it Ken Pell had gotten more than a hundred grand for the market, which was probably three times what it was worth, and there were plenty of Equinoxians who would stab their own sisters for that kind of money. College people, on the other hand–professors–said they’d never sell. They liked Equinox because it was quaint and cheap and on the lake. They liked authenticity, which evidently meant hicks and greasers, and they disliked the rich, a category they apparently excused themselves from.
Locals, though: they liked the idea of some bigwig moving into town. They liked somebody spreading money around. They thought it would help.
Even the people who dislike and distrust Happy have no idea of the sort of person they are dealing with. Underneath the public persona of sweetness and a great understanding of children, the real Happy is a hard, driven and canny millionairess who will do whatever it takes to ‘own’ Equinox. That includes lying, cheating, and breaking the law–it’s all on the table over the battle for Equinox. Happy feels renewed by her new plan, and that makes her a very dangerous adversary. Anyone who has the guts or the lack of imagination to stand in Happy’s way discovers the hard way that this woman plays dirty. Happy’s plan of attack when it comes to her play to take over Equinox College–a small private institution for women is simply hilarious.
While Happyland has a delightful, wonderful plot, it’s also full of some great characters, including laconic, easy-going Bud and his tenacious wife, Jennifer who own the rundown gas station/ice cream kiosk. Jennifer makes a decent adversary for Happy as she’s every bit as mean and merciless but, unfortunately, lacks deep pockets. There’s also David who owns the local bar who would like to have principles if he could afford them, and ”middle-aged and languishing,” Reeve Tennyson, the college president who landed in this third-rate school after an embarrassing scandal that he walked into through his own ineptness. Aware that Equinox college really wanted to employ a woman, he’s a bit ashamed of working at Equinox College with its all female enrollment and the large percentage of lesbian students. He mostly hides out in his office, waits for his life to pass and thinks he’s hit rock bottom. It’s probably a good thing that he has no idea of the fate Happy Masters has in store for him.
Happyland with its dark, satiric humour is very different from the other two Lennon novels I’ve read Castle and Familiar. But even though Happyland is meant to be taken as a very funny story, there’s no shortage of moral questions raised in this quintessential American novel in which money and power trumps all other considerations. Does anyone as filthy rich as Happy Masters have the moral right to convert and co-opt an entire town to their own purpose? And then there’s the response of the townspeople–some business owners would really like to sell to Happy but they’re affronted by her attitude that everything and everyone is for sale, so they don’t immediately sell. This results in a war between locals and Happy, who’s a) determined to get her way and b) ready to bury her enemies in financial disaster. Happyland looks at the reaction of the average Citizen when he’s faced with being either figuratively bulldozed into oblivion by a multi-million dollar corporation or starved off the face of the earth by someone with near-endless financial resources. Taking a moral stand or arguing principles is a very expensive position to maintain as several townspeople find out the hard way. Then there’s Happy–a woman who possesses many admirable character traits but they’ve been trumped by her own moral corrosion and steady diet of endless power and money. Finally on the meta-level, there’s author J. Robert Lennon who refused to compromise his principles when it came to altering some of the story basics, and he had to wait ten years for this book to appear in novel form.
review copy
January 6, 2020
I thought it was unusual, and happily so, that Harper's published in serial form this novel in 2006...four installments. About 16 pages per issue. I remember enjoying the book. I still have the book (in loose-leaf from from Harpers).
September 3, 2013
With J Robert Lennon's writing, past experience tells you to prepare for the unexpected. Having read both Castle and Familiar, I've become accustomed to his unusual twists and turns, and read HAPPYLAND fully anticipating more of the same.
Will the dolls turn out to be demonic? Will Happy Masters end up slipping into doll-obsessed madness? Will the townsfolk all be turned into dolls?
Amazingly, and a little upsettingly, nothing of the sort happens. HAPPYLAND simply tells the story of a rich, egotistical toy mogul who has designs on the quiet little town of Equinox. Moving in and buying out everything and everyone she can, Happy quickly pisses off the townspeople as she razes their regular stomping grounds and begins to build her Happyland empire.
Lennon's narrative attacks the story line from third person which allows us to see this hostile takeover from multiple perspectives - those who are infatuated with Happy and her toy company (Happy Girl Inc), those who prefer the town to be left alone, and even from Happy's deluded point of view.
As I made my way through the book, I started to see it as a cautionary tale about the dangerous and powerful combination of money, ego, and imagination. It's that I'll-run-you-over-so-you-better-get-out-the-way complex, that I'll-use-you-and-abuse-you-and-watch-you-crumble-and-fall mentality, that inexhaustible desire to use people as ... wait for it... puppets to get what you need, that fuels the fantastical within this novel.
It also demonstrates the sad-but-true cut throat world we live in where the sneaky and the dishonest always seem to thrive while the honest and amiable fight to survive. Even at her worst, Happy made out a million times better than any of the townspeople ever did. Even when the all evil, manipulable things she did caught up with her, even then, she walked away unscathed - a little more worn, a little more wise, but completely and absolutely unscathed.
Money, the things that drives us all mad. Mad with the desire to have it. Mad with depression and desperation when we can't get it or had it and lost it. Mad with power when we finally get it.
And while I found this a perfectly enjoyable read, I wouldn't have blinked twice at a little demonic doll action...
Will the dolls turn out to be demonic? Will Happy Masters end up slipping into doll-obsessed madness? Will the townsfolk all be turned into dolls?
Amazingly, and a little upsettingly, nothing of the sort happens. HAPPYLAND simply tells the story of a rich, egotistical toy mogul who has designs on the quiet little town of Equinox. Moving in and buying out everything and everyone she can, Happy quickly pisses off the townspeople as she razes their regular stomping grounds and begins to build her Happyland empire.
Lennon's narrative attacks the story line from third person which allows us to see this hostile takeover from multiple perspectives - those who are infatuated with Happy and her toy company (Happy Girl Inc), those who prefer the town to be left alone, and even from Happy's deluded point of view.
As I made my way through the book, I started to see it as a cautionary tale about the dangerous and powerful combination of money, ego, and imagination. It's that I'll-run-you-over-so-you-better-get-out-the-way complex, that I'll-use-you-and-abuse-you-and-watch-you-crumble-and-fall mentality, that inexhaustible desire to use people as ... wait for it... puppets to get what you need, that fuels the fantastical within this novel.
It also demonstrates the sad-but-true cut throat world we live in where the sneaky and the dishonest always seem to thrive while the honest and amiable fight to survive. Even at her worst, Happy made out a million times better than any of the townspeople ever did. Even when the all evil, manipulable things she did caught up with her, even then, she walked away unscathed - a little more worn, a little more wise, but completely and absolutely unscathed.
Money, the things that drives us all mad. Mad with the desire to have it. Mad with depression and desperation when we can't get it or had it and lost it. Mad with power when we finally get it.
And while I found this a perfectly enjoyable read, I wouldn't have blinked twice at a little demonic doll action...
December 11, 2013
A 4.5. This is a first-rate novel of the type where an event (in this case, a person) shakes up the lives of a number of people whose lives weren’t going anywhere at all. The genre is more comedy than tragedy, but it can have tragic results. Perhaps we should call the genre the Aufwuhlungsroman.
The prose, the structure, the choreography of character collisions, the balance of satire and drama (with drama becoming dominant as the novel progresses), the ironies, the setpieces — Lennon proves to be a master of them all. He has come a long way from his first novel, The Light of the Falling Stars, which I stopped reading a hundred pages in. This is as good a mainstream novel as is being written here and now.
Ignore the backstory. This is a work of the imagination that began from the barebones of a real-life story and quickly took on its own life. The backstory is the least important thing about the novel.
The prose, the structure, the choreography of character collisions, the balance of satire and drama (with drama becoming dominant as the novel progresses), the ironies, the setpieces — Lennon proves to be a master of them all. He has come a long way from his first novel, The Light of the Falling Stars, which I stopped reading a hundred pages in. This is as good a mainstream novel as is being written here and now.
Ignore the backstory. This is a work of the imagination that began from the barebones of a real-life story and quickly took on its own life. The backstory is the least important thing about the novel.
August 6, 2022
Probably more like 3.5 stars, but I enjoyed it so I'm rounding up.
"Happyland" is a novel inspired by what happened to Aurora in upstate when the founder of the American Girl dolls remade the town. Some publishers found it uncomfortably close to that story and the book was kicked from publisher to publisher for years because everyone was afraid of getting sued.
Maybe it's the upstate New York setting or the class conflict, or the mocking of college academics but "Happyland" really reminded me of Richard Russo. If you like his work you'll probably enjoy this. Like Russo it gets a little too sentimental at times, but then the humor returns and you're able to push through and keep reading. Lennon doesn't quite bring his characters to life like Russo.
"They represented a view of life, particularly American life, that was less a philosophy than a highly selective, market-tested sampler of the less unsavory manifestations of human nature."
"Happyland" is a novel inspired by what happened to Aurora in upstate when the founder of the American Girl dolls remade the town. Some publishers found it uncomfortably close to that story and the book was kicked from publisher to publisher for years because everyone was afraid of getting sued.
Maybe it's the upstate New York setting or the class conflict, or the mocking of college academics but "Happyland" really reminded me of Richard Russo. If you like his work you'll probably enjoy this. Like Russo it gets a little too sentimental at times, but then the humor returns and you're able to push through and keep reading. Lennon doesn't quite bring his characters to life like Russo.
"They represented a view of life, particularly American life, that was less a philosophy than a highly selective, market-tested sampler of the less unsavory manifestations of human nature."
October 18, 2017
I have grown tired of men writing women so poorly it becomes an act of misogyny.
October 28, 2013
What a great book! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Weirdly enough, I was hooked from the introduction/acknowledgement secrtion. Lennon has been writing this book since 2003, and I was ready to be blown away by this labor of love. I was not disappointed.
The story follows Happy Masters, a take-no-prisoners kind of doll mogul and millionaire. She's middle-aged and yet adorable. It makes for a curious contrast to see her sweet-faced self trample all over people, their lives, their wishes and dreams, and morality in general. I LOVE her character. Maybe I'm crazy (you know how Barney in How I Met Your Mother thinks the Karate Kid is about the blond bully and his tragic story of undeserved defeat?). Maybe I'm bourgeoisie, because I kind of rooted for her; I wanted the ignorant little town of losers to be bulldozed to make room for another dirty Disneyland. Maybe I like the macabre, because I wanted Happy to win, only for her empire to go up in flames. I wanted nobody to be happy. Or maybe someone else felt this way? I swear I'm not a sociopath.
Happy's not the only one I loved. Jennifer and her husband Bud, who are co-owners of gas staton/ice cream stand, are freaking hilarious. Jennifer is a hard-ass who doesn't know how the hell she would up in a marriage with two kids, and who will put up a fight against Happy's encroaching empire just because she's bored. Bud, whose real name was snuffed out by the thumb of his terrifying wife, just helplessly watches and "Aww, Jenny"s on the sidelines. I didn't like the spinster librarian, Ruth Spinks, but I definitely appreciated the way he constructed her character. I loved Reeve Tennyson, the hapless president of the in-town women's college who feels very uncomfortable around lesbians. Janet, a student at said college who has put Happy on a sexy, sexy saint pedestal. I could go on, there are so many great people and moments. I give extra stars for amazing characters, and this is definitely the case. I could read about these people forever.
I think I expected the book to go in a different direction, and when it didn't I felt a little deflated. Not disappointed, because this is a very strong, fantastically written book. I just wanted a little more sinister, a little more figurative explosions. I may change my mind about the rating later, but I just wasn't too keen on the whole Dave/Kevin/Happy thing at the end. Maybe too abrupt? But there was good build-up, so I'm probably wrong. I need some more time, dang it! I already spend a morning in the shower contemplating my rating. We will see what I say in a month.
I want to read the rest of J. Robert Lennon's work. Even on the off-chance that I don't like the stories, I'm sure he more than delivers in the character department.
Oh my god, just remembered the Sally Streit debacle in the book. So funny. Go read it, everybody. If you want a good story about a small town that gets in the way of a money-hungry human bulldozer, check this out.
EDIT: Just noticed that this book is shelved under sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, and horror. Um, what book did these people read? Just so you know, there is nothing paranormal about this book. Other than the insatiable greed and supernatural manipulation abilities of Happy, I guess. It's not horror, either, at least not in the true sense. So, make sure you know what you're getting into when you start this book. It's what fooled me, for sure.
-I got a free e-book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review-
The story follows Happy Masters, a take-no-prisoners kind of doll mogul and millionaire. She's middle-aged and yet adorable. It makes for a curious contrast to see her sweet-faced self trample all over people, their lives, their wishes and dreams, and morality in general. I LOVE her character. Maybe I'm crazy (you know how Barney in How I Met Your Mother thinks the Karate Kid is about the blond bully and his tragic story of undeserved defeat?). Maybe I'm bourgeoisie, because I kind of rooted for her; I wanted the ignorant little town of losers to be bulldozed to make room for another dirty Disneyland. Maybe I like the macabre, because I wanted Happy to win, only for her empire to go up in flames. I wanted nobody to be happy. Or maybe someone else felt this way? I swear I'm not a sociopath.
Happy's not the only one I loved. Jennifer and her husband Bud, who are co-owners of gas staton/ice cream stand, are freaking hilarious. Jennifer is a hard-ass who doesn't know how the hell she would up in a marriage with two kids, and who will put up a fight against Happy's encroaching empire just because she's bored. Bud, whose real name was snuffed out by the thumb of his terrifying wife, just helplessly watches and "Aww, Jenny"s on the sidelines. I didn't like the spinster librarian, Ruth Spinks, but I definitely appreciated the way he constructed her character. I loved Reeve Tennyson, the hapless president of the in-town women's college who feels very uncomfortable around lesbians. Janet, a student at said college who has put Happy on a sexy, sexy saint pedestal. I could go on, there are so many great people and moments. I give extra stars for amazing characters, and this is definitely the case. I could read about these people forever.
I think I expected the book to go in a different direction, and when it didn't I felt a little deflated. Not disappointed, because this is a very strong, fantastically written book. I just wanted a little more sinister, a little more figurative explosions. I may change my mind about the rating later, but I just wasn't too keen on the whole Dave/Kevin/Happy thing at the end. Maybe too abrupt? But there was good build-up, so I'm probably wrong. I need some more time, dang it! I already spend a morning in the shower contemplating my rating. We will see what I say in a month.
I want to read the rest of J. Robert Lennon's work. Even on the off-chance that I don't like the stories, I'm sure he more than delivers in the character department.
Oh my god, just remembered the Sally Streit debacle in the book. So funny. Go read it, everybody. If you want a good story about a small town that gets in the way of a money-hungry human bulldozer, check this out.
EDIT: Just noticed that this book is shelved under sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, and horror. Um, what book did these people read? Just so you know, there is nothing paranormal about this book. Other than the insatiable greed and supernatural manipulation abilities of Happy, I guess. It's not horror, either, at least not in the true sense. So, make sure you know what you're getting into when you start this book. It's what fooled me, for sure.
-I got a free e-book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review-
December 19, 2014
This novel caught my attention as I knew something about the real life story that it is loosely based on. In both the real and the fictional stories, a woman who has married into great wealth decides to channel her boredom into a doll-making venture. And these are not just any dolls. These are expensive dolls that each have an identity, a period or ethnic costume and a book to go with them.
Once she has achieved success with this doll-making venture, what does she do? She decides to buy herself a house which becomes the couple's new home base, though this home is in a small town in central New York State. And the town is in need of a makeover, and the heroine proceeds to take on that task herself. She achieves this by buying up everything in town that needs fixing. In the process she causes hurt feelings and suspicion.
In both the real and the fictional stories there is also a women's college in this small town and there are people who do not like that their town is being taken over.
In the book the main character is named Happy Masters. She is ambitious, beautiful and quite ruthless. She seems to be everywhere Allah one time. The other characters in the book are not as well understood. How can the husband who has more money and is always on the road with this own business concerns not be involved in the house she has purchased. How is it that he so willingly accepts all these changes she makes to their lives which must be incredibly inconvenient for a guy on the go all the time?
The other characters in the book: the mayor of Equinox, the college president, the college girl she hires as her assistant, the bar owner, the college librarian, the handyman, the couple who own a gas station/ice cream stand - they all share certain traits. The people from the town are either on to her and want her out but are living some different version of a pathetic life before and after her presence or they are enamored by her or her money. The men are mostly taken in by her. Many of the women (except the college trustees who seem incredibly naive) are very suspicious of her and her motivations.
The story gets a little too ridiculous. It is entertaining reading and does provoke some thoughts about human nature. How money motivates some people, how gullible people are, how futile it is sometimes to search for justice when powerful people are against you. But otherwise it's okay light reading.
Once she has achieved success with this doll-making venture, what does she do? She decides to buy herself a house which becomes the couple's new home base, though this home is in a small town in central New York State. And the town is in need of a makeover, and the heroine proceeds to take on that task herself. She achieves this by buying up everything in town that needs fixing. In the process she causes hurt feelings and suspicion.
In both the real and the fictional stories there is also a women's college in this small town and there are people who do not like that their town is being taken over.
In the book the main character is named Happy Masters. She is ambitious, beautiful and quite ruthless. She seems to be everywhere Allah one time. The other characters in the book are not as well understood. How can the husband who has more money and is always on the road with this own business concerns not be involved in the house she has purchased. How is it that he so willingly accepts all these changes she makes to their lives which must be incredibly inconvenient for a guy on the go all the time?
The other characters in the book: the mayor of Equinox, the college president, the college girl she hires as her assistant, the bar owner, the college librarian, the handyman, the couple who own a gas station/ice cream stand - they all share certain traits. The people from the town are either on to her and want her out but are living some different version of a pathetic life before and after her presence or they are enamored by her or her money. The men are mostly taken in by her. Many of the women (except the college trustees who seem incredibly naive) are very suspicious of her and her motivations.
The story gets a little too ridiculous. It is entertaining reading and does provoke some thoughts about human nature. How money motivates some people, how gullible people are, how futile it is sometimes to search for justice when powerful people are against you. But otherwise it's okay light reading.
January 21, 2014
Doll company owner attempts to purchase town and re-make it into a company town for tourists, runs into problems with actual people not buying into her vision. Plus a side of small town humor, planning issues, and historical society reps, and add an all girls college liberal arts campus filled with naive young women exploring their sexuality.
I should have loved this, but I'm sort of meh. I think the author's just trying a bit too hard to be precious, and maybe too hard to try to distance everything from the real life inspiration for the novel. And while there's lots of characterization and backstory for the characters, they mostly still feel strangely flat and hollow.
I should have loved this, but I'm sort of meh. I think the author's just trying a bit too hard to be precious, and maybe too hard to try to distance everything from the real life inspiration for the novel. And while there's lots of characterization and backstory for the characters, they mostly still feel strangely flat and hollow.
December 16, 2015
J. Robert Lennon's characters are anything but happy in "Happyland," a novel about a tiny town taken over by a egotistic doll creator. As Happy Masters follows a selfish plan to make over Equinox into her own playground, the residents - or least some of them - try to take back their homes.
The narrative is well written, however the plot is predictable.
The narrative is well written, however the plot is predictable.
June 15, 2014
Happy Masters, head of a doll empire (like American Girls), moves to a small town in the Finger Lakes and spends the book remaking it in her image of what a small town should be. Entertaining and disturbing.
January 2, 2015
Fans of Shirley Jackson will love this book with the controversial publication history. It's a must-read for fans of dark humor. See the review at The Book Wheel.
February 24, 2010
Read this in Harpers: really interesting, based on the American Girl story.
January 17, 2009
I really loved this book. It was syndicated in Harper's Magazine, because of some interesting side controversies.
September 16, 2013
Deliciously dark, and very satirical. Never having been an America Girl owner or fan, I was fine with the sinister side of this story! Terrifically absorbing.
November 4, 2013
4.5 stars! A snappy, snarky read.
November 3, 2014
Entertaining, well written.
July 10, 2014
Loved this.
December 28, 2020
3.5 stars
Interesting but ultimately feels half baked. This feels like an idea that needed fleshing out further, and I also think the form it’s in could use some editing.
Interesting but ultimately feels half baked. This feels like an idea that needed fleshing out further, and I also think the form it’s in could use some editing.
Read
January 25, 2018Hoopla Digital, Didn't finish, seems like all characters are hated by the author.
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