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Happy for You
A whip-smart, funny, affecting novel about a young woman who takes a job at a tech company looking to break into the "happiness market"--even as her own happiness feels more unknowable than ever
Four years into work on a still-unfinished philosophy dissertation, and seemingly unready to accept a marriage proposal from her long-term boyfriend, Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto feels stalled. Meanwhile, all around her, everyone else seems to be getting on with their lives: her corn-fed, relentlessly optimistic boyfriend, Jamie, has no hesitation about committing to a shared future, and even her reserved Japanese father is energized by a new relationship--his first since her mother's passing when Evelyn was just fourteen. The privacy-invading, norm-reinforcing apps, algorithms, and self-optimization messaging that surround her seem more sure of what Evelyn should think and want than she is.
Looking for a change, Evelyn accepts a job as a researcher at the third-most popular internet company, housed at a glass and steel office building in downtown San Francisco. There, she is charged with aiding in the development of an app that will help users quantify--and augment--their happiness. As she grapples with the tech world's bewildering work culture and jolting excess, an unexpected development in her personal life upends her assumptions about her future, and Evelyn embarks on a journey towards an authentic happiness all her own.
Wry, touching, and sharply attuned to the ambivalence, atomization, and illusion of control that characterize modern life, Happy for You is a story of a young woman at a crossroads that movingly explores how, even in this mediated world, our emotions, contradictions, and vulnerabilities have a transformative power we could never predict.
Four years into work on a still-unfinished philosophy dissertation, and seemingly unready to accept a marriage proposal from her long-term boyfriend, Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto feels stalled. Meanwhile, all around her, everyone else seems to be getting on with their lives: her corn-fed, relentlessly optimistic boyfriend, Jamie, has no hesitation about committing to a shared future, and even her reserved Japanese father is energized by a new relationship--his first since her mother's passing when Evelyn was just fourteen. The privacy-invading, norm-reinforcing apps, algorithms, and self-optimization messaging that surround her seem more sure of what Evelyn should think and want than she is.
Looking for a change, Evelyn accepts a job as a researcher at the third-most popular internet company, housed at a glass and steel office building in downtown San Francisco. There, she is charged with aiding in the development of an app that will help users quantify--and augment--their happiness. As she grapples with the tech world's bewildering work culture and jolting excess, an unexpected development in her personal life upends her assumptions about her future, and Evelyn embarks on a journey towards an authentic happiness all her own.
Wry, touching, and sharply attuned to the ambivalence, atomization, and illusion of control that characterize modern life, Happy for You is a story of a young woman at a crossroads that movingly explores how, even in this mediated world, our emotions, contradictions, and vulnerabilities have a transformative power we could never predict.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 19, 2022
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May 27, 2022
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The premise for Happy for You made me think that this would be something in the realms of titles such as Temporary, The Factory, and Severance, which present their readers with wry commentaries on the gig economy and the modern workplace, or, satires about social media, the tech industry, and wellness culture, such Followers and Self Care ….so I was slightly disappointed by the trajectory taken by Claire Stanford’s character arc and, consequently, the direction of the story. If you are approaching this thinking it will be something in the realms of shows like Black Mirror or Severance, well, you may want to readjust your expectations. The speculative element within the narrative is barely there and mostly appears in the form of a few skits featuring invasive personalized adverts and apps, which, to me, was a bit of a letdown. Still, there were parts of the narrative that I did find engaging, even if I was frustrated by how our main character’s arc becomes exclusively about the possibility of marriage and motherhood, her life outside of the ye old woman=wife/mother equation is given little to no page time.
Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto is a burnout PhD student who is offered the opportunity to work as a researcher at ‘the third-most popular internet company’. The company is currently working on an app that is meant to track and improve its user’s happiness. To ‘quantify’ happiness the company has employed various researchers, including Evelyn whose research allegedly focused on the mind-body problem. While she does meet two of her colleagues, the narrative barely explores the realities of working for this company. It may seem bizarre but I like or am intrigued by books that explore, in whatever capacity, office dynamics (a few examples: Edge Case, Luster, Severance, If I Never Met You, The New Me, Promising Young Women, and Days of Distraction) maybe because I do not work in such an environment, and I was under the impression that convinced that Happy for You would focus in equal measure on Evelyn’s working and personal life…but it doesn't, not really.
She is employed by this company, picks up on some weird vibes (which lead nowhere), and at some point goes on a work trip/retreat of some sort to discuss the app and happiness. That’s kind of it. The narrative does highlight how male-dominated the tech industry is, the commodification of non-western religious and cultural practices in the west, and the many microaggressions experienced by a person of dual heritage (for instance, the fetish-y comments about 'how cute your babies will look'). Evelyn is routinely questioned by strangers in regards to her ‘background’ and at times feels a sense of alienation when moving in predominantly white spaces. Readers will also notice that because she has always been at the receiving end of ‘guess their ethnicity game’, she too at times does the same (except she exclusively plays this ‘game’ in her head), which seems to point to the loneliness she experiences as the only woc in many predominantly white environments and how exposure to certain attitudes may eventually lead to you to imitate/perpetuate said behaviours/mentalities. Though Evelyn’s experiences the narrative touches on the realities and many microaggressions experienced by poc in a society that deems whiteness to be the norm.
The author’s social commentary could be quite effective, and her stylistic use of repetition adds to the sense of otherness and claustrophobia that Evelyn experiences in this modern age.
Her work life and her experiences as a student remain largely unexplored, which is a pity. The narrative doesn’t really give us any information in regards to Evelyn’s actual contribution to this ‘happiness’ app. Her relationship to the academic world is also given little consideration, which is a pity as her character supposedly had already spent a few years on her dissertation.
I did enjoy those sections that focused on her somewhat awkward relationship with her father, who was born in Japan and spent most of his life in the United States. Evelyn seems to feel a certain degree of jealousy that his new partner is Japanese, especially when she perceives changes in his routine and beliefs, changes she attributes to his new partner, and worries that her presence in his life will erase her mother’s memory. The sections focused on the dynamic between them all were my favorite as I appreciated how the author is able to render an undercurrent of unease in their various interactions and to create poignant moments of mutual understanding or empathy.
Now, as I mentioned above, I went into this thinking that it would be a book about this ‘happiness’ app and the tech industry (on a related note, i'd definitely recommend 'why does everyone want to break into tech?' by the lovely amanda), however, the story offers only a surface level understanding of modern workplace politics…instead we have pages and pages spent with her boyfriend who is easily interchangeable with the male ‘love interests from The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing and Days of Distraction who, funnily enough, are named respectively Jamie and J….in Happy for You we have yet another Jamie, of the white straight cis American male variety whose personality resembles that of sliced bread. He is well meaning-ish and fairly supportive, has a stable job and comes from a financially & emotionally stable family. He often isn’t aware of his own privilege and seems to either be oblivious or dismissive of the microaggressions experienced by Evelyn. Yet, while the narrative tries to paint him as this fairly innocuous & insipid guy annoyed me when the story concludes with him managing somehow to convince Evelyn to do things she initially was opposed to or unsure of doing.
spoilers below
We are told that Evelyn enjoys the financial stability offered by her new job and even if she’s not convinced by the app—from whether it is feasible to ‘quantify’ happiness, to the meaning and desirability of happiness itself and the actual benefit an app like this would have—she naturally feels a sense of satisfaction and pride when her boss implies that she is talented etc. We also know that at this stage in her life Evelyn doesn't want to get married and is unsure of ever having kids…by the end of the narrative, we are somehow led to believe that after becoming pregnant Evelyn has somehow reconciled herself to both of these things. She spends the latter of the narrative worried that she will be a bad mother, and eventually gives up her job because she doesn’t believe in it (it wasn’t clear to me whether she was interested in picking up her studies again). And, at the end, she also says yes to Jamie, who’d proposed early on in the book. Like..ugh. I am tired of narratives where the female protagonist initially doesn’t want marriage/kids and by then ends up marrying (or about to marry) and with kids (or about to have kids). This type of narrative feeds into ‘you will change your mind’/‘it is natural for a woman to be a wife/mother’ reactionary rhetoric. That is not to say that there is no palace for narratives where female characters go on to do so things should not exist, but given their abundance, I found it frustrating when a character who says they don’t want those things for themselves, ends up being persuaded into doing/becoming those things. Evelyn lacked agency, and I wasn’t convinced that she really had had a change of heart.
Back to the app. This was very disappointing. Employees like Evelyn are ‘encouraged’ to be beta users for this app so we get to actually see it in action..and it basically consists of the classic questions you would get in any type of happiness quiz. Yes, Evelyn gets a lot of push notifications and she’s urged to improve her results but I wish the author had gone heavier on the speculative elements when it came to her portrayal of this company and app.
And, I almost forgot, Evelyn has one single friend who is given two appearances where he exists only as an object of not quite ridicule but his depiction felt cartoonish. Later on, his character is completely forgotten by both Evelyn and the story, which made it really seem as if he was included as an afterthought.
The narrative often doesn't name things directly. From Evelyn's company, which is constantly referred to as ‘the third-most popular internet company’, to things like Facebook and Ikea or even a book she's reading (missing husband? greece? i'm fairly sure the book in question was Katie Kitamura's A Separation)...anyway, the point is that this device was implemented in a rather gimmicky way.
I have rather mixed feelings about this debut. On the one hand, I found its themes compelling and thought-provoking. I liked that the narrator questions the origin of some of her behaviours and attitudes, for example, there are several instances where she realizes just how pervasive and insidious stereotypes perpetuated by the media are. I also thought that the author truly captures her dissonance and her sense of discomfort. That is not to say this was a bad book, in fact, I would probably recommend it, especially to fans of the ‘she’s not feeling so good’ subgenre. I did find the resolution to her story and arc frustrating, as they were predictable. I would have found it more satisfying if Evelyn had left Jamie and truly focus on herself, her career, her studies, and her friendships (which were painfully absent). Her relationship with her father and her tentative bond with his new partner was far more emotionally stimulating than her bland and generic romance.
Lastly, I would have appreciated a more intersectional approach to certain discussions as I found it a bit sus for a story exploring contemporary social issues that lbgtq+ related issues are very much not addressed or even mentioned.
Anyway, if this book is on your radar I recommend you check it out for yourself as Claire Stanford is clearly a promising author. Sometimes her prose is a bit heavy-handed on repetition and her satire does stray into silliness but some of the ideas that are at play in the story and her storytelling herself have definite potential...personally, I just prefer when these types of books don't conclude with the mc getting married and having children.
The premise for Happy for You made me think that this would be something in the realms of titles such as Temporary, The Factory, and Severance, which present their readers with wry commentaries on the gig economy and the modern workplace, or, satires about social media, the tech industry, and wellness culture, such Followers and Self Care ….so I was slightly disappointed by the trajectory taken by Claire Stanford’s character arc and, consequently, the direction of the story. If you are approaching this thinking it will be something in the realms of shows like Black Mirror or Severance, well, you may want to readjust your expectations. The speculative element within the narrative is barely there and mostly appears in the form of a few skits featuring invasive personalized adverts and apps, which, to me, was a bit of a letdown. Still, there were parts of the narrative that I did find engaging, even if I was frustrated by how our main character’s arc becomes exclusively about the possibility of marriage and motherhood, her life outside of the ye old woman=wife/mother equation is given little to no page time.
Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto is a burnout PhD student who is offered the opportunity to work as a researcher at ‘the third-most popular internet company’. The company is currently working on an app that is meant to track and improve its user’s happiness. To ‘quantify’ happiness the company has employed various researchers, including Evelyn whose research allegedly focused on the mind-body problem. While she does meet two of her colleagues, the narrative barely explores the realities of working for this company. It may seem bizarre but I like or am intrigued by books that explore, in whatever capacity, office dynamics (a few examples: Edge Case, Luster, Severance, If I Never Met You, The New Me, Promising Young Women, and Days of Distraction) maybe because I do not work in such an environment, and I was under the impression that convinced that Happy for You would focus in equal measure on Evelyn’s working and personal life…but it doesn't, not really.
She is employed by this company, picks up on some weird vibes (which lead nowhere), and at some point goes on a work trip/retreat of some sort to discuss the app and happiness. That’s kind of it. The narrative does highlight how male-dominated the tech industry is, the commodification of non-western religious and cultural practices in the west, and the many microaggressions experienced by a person of dual heritage (for instance, the fetish-y comments about 'how cute your babies will look'). Evelyn is routinely questioned by strangers in regards to her ‘background’ and at times feels a sense of alienation when moving in predominantly white spaces. Readers will also notice that because she has always been at the receiving end of ‘guess their ethnicity game’, she too at times does the same (except she exclusively plays this ‘game’ in her head), which seems to point to the loneliness she experiences as the only woc in many predominantly white environments and how exposure to certain attitudes may eventually lead to you to imitate/perpetuate said behaviours/mentalities. Though Evelyn’s experiences the narrative touches on the realities and many microaggressions experienced by poc in a society that deems whiteness to be the norm.
The author’s social commentary could be quite effective, and her stylistic use of repetition adds to the sense of otherness and claustrophobia that Evelyn experiences in this modern age.
Her work life and her experiences as a student remain largely unexplored, which is a pity. The narrative doesn’t really give us any information in regards to Evelyn’s actual contribution to this ‘happiness’ app. Her relationship to the academic world is also given little consideration, which is a pity as her character supposedly had already spent a few years on her dissertation.
I did enjoy those sections that focused on her somewhat awkward relationship with her father, who was born in Japan and spent most of his life in the United States. Evelyn seems to feel a certain degree of jealousy that his new partner is Japanese, especially when she perceives changes in his routine and beliefs, changes she attributes to his new partner, and worries that her presence in his life will erase her mother’s memory. The sections focused on the dynamic between them all were my favorite as I appreciated how the author is able to render an undercurrent of unease in their various interactions and to create poignant moments of mutual understanding or empathy.
Now, as I mentioned above, I went into this thinking that it would be a book about this ‘happiness’ app and the tech industry (on a related note, i'd definitely recommend 'why does everyone want to break into tech?' by the lovely amanda), however, the story offers only a surface level understanding of modern workplace politics…instead we have pages and pages spent with her boyfriend who is easily interchangeable with the male ‘love interests from The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing and Days of Distraction who, funnily enough, are named respectively Jamie and J….in Happy for You we have yet another Jamie, of the white straight cis American male variety whose personality resembles that of sliced bread. He is well meaning-ish and fairly supportive, has a stable job and comes from a financially & emotionally stable family. He often isn’t aware of his own privilege and seems to either be oblivious or dismissive of the microaggressions experienced by Evelyn. Yet, while the narrative tries to paint him as this fairly innocuous & insipid guy annoyed me when the story concludes with him managing somehow to convince Evelyn to do things she initially was opposed to or unsure of doing.
spoilers below
We are told that Evelyn enjoys the financial stability offered by her new job and even if she’s not convinced by the app—from whether it is feasible to ‘quantify’ happiness, to the meaning and desirability of happiness itself and the actual benefit an app like this would have—she naturally feels a sense of satisfaction and pride when her boss implies that she is talented etc. We also know that at this stage in her life Evelyn doesn't want to get married and is unsure of ever having kids…by the end of the narrative, we are somehow led to believe that after becoming pregnant Evelyn has somehow reconciled herself to both of these things. She spends the latter of the narrative worried that she will be a bad mother, and eventually gives up her job because she doesn’t believe in it (it wasn’t clear to me whether she was interested in picking up her studies again). And, at the end, she also says yes to Jamie, who’d proposed early on in the book. Like..ugh. I am tired of narratives where the female protagonist initially doesn’t want marriage/kids and by then ends up marrying (or about to marry) and with kids (or about to have kids). This type of narrative feeds into ‘you will change your mind’/‘it is natural for a woman to be a wife/mother’ reactionary rhetoric. That is not to say that there is no palace for narratives where female characters go on to do so things should not exist, but given their abundance, I found it frustrating when a character who says they don’t want those things for themselves, ends up being persuaded into doing/becoming those things. Evelyn lacked agency, and I wasn’t convinced that she really had had a change of heart.
Back to the app. This was very disappointing. Employees like Evelyn are ‘encouraged’ to be beta users for this app so we get to actually see it in action..and it basically consists of the classic questions you would get in any type of happiness quiz. Yes, Evelyn gets a lot of push notifications and she’s urged to improve her results but I wish the author had gone heavier on the speculative elements when it came to her portrayal of this company and app.
And, I almost forgot, Evelyn has one single friend who is given two appearances where he exists only as an object of not quite ridicule but his depiction felt cartoonish. Later on, his character is completely forgotten by both Evelyn and the story, which made it really seem as if he was included as an afterthought.
The narrative often doesn't name things directly. From Evelyn's company, which is constantly referred to as ‘the third-most popular internet company’, to things like Facebook and Ikea or even a book she's reading (missing husband? greece? i'm fairly sure the book in question was Katie Kitamura's A Separation)...anyway, the point is that this device was implemented in a rather gimmicky way.
I have rather mixed feelings about this debut. On the one hand, I found its themes compelling and thought-provoking. I liked that the narrator questions the origin of some of her behaviours and attitudes, for example, there are several instances where she realizes just how pervasive and insidious stereotypes perpetuated by the media are. I also thought that the author truly captures her dissonance and her sense of discomfort. That is not to say this was a bad book, in fact, I would probably recommend it, especially to fans of the ‘she’s not feeling so good’ subgenre. I did find the resolution to her story and arc frustrating, as they were predictable. I would have found it more satisfying if Evelyn had left Jamie and truly focus on herself, her career, her studies, and her friendships (which were painfully absent). Her relationship with her father and her tentative bond with his new partner was far more emotionally stimulating than her bland and generic romance.
Lastly, I would have appreciated a more intersectional approach to certain discussions as I found it a bit sus for a story exploring contemporary social issues that lbgtq+ related issues are very much not addressed or even mentioned.
Anyway, if this book is on your radar I recommend you check it out for yourself as Claire Stanford is clearly a promising author. Sometimes her prose is a bit heavy-handed on repetition and her satire does stray into silliness but some of the ideas that are at play in the story and her storytelling herself have definite potential...personally, I just prefer when these types of books don't conclude with the mc getting married and having children.
April 30, 2022
2.5 stars-I think what bothered me the most about this book was that by the end of the book, I didn't get to know the characters any better than at the beginning. The ending fell flat for me.
June 8, 2022
First hate finish of the year! lol what in the Hallmark original movie is this? So let me get this straight, when we meet the main character at the beginning, she was starting a high tech job and heavily debating marriage and children. But at the end, she quits her job, has a baby, and is about to get married? I would tag this as a spoiler but let's be honest, did you REALLY think it would go any other way? And isn't that so fucking sad?? Is it actually too damn much to ask for a woman who is unsure about motherhood to just like, not have a kid at the end for the sake of a "happy" ending? Oh and news flash, she ISN'T HAPPY after the kid comes anyway.
May 7, 2022
Had a hard time with this book, and a hard time with this review. The blurb calls HAPPY FOR YOU whip-smart, but I didn't get that at all. The writing is sparse and I had trouble connecting with any of the characters, most importantly our protagonist. The book is about a young woman, currently finishing her Ph.D in philosophy when she decides to take a job at a tech company that is trying to find and market a pill for quick happiness.
I suppose what left a weird taste in my mouth is that there is a good chance the author decides that marriage and children is the answer? The main character struggles throughout the entire book to find happiness for herself, as well as understand that it means in a greater sense, but the ending (spoiler alert) seems to suggest that simply a child will solve all problems. Granted, I'm sure it dos for many, but I was confused that that was the conclusion for this book specifically.
I suppose what left a weird taste in my mouth is that there is a good chance the author decides that marriage and children is the answer? The main character struggles throughout the entire book to find happiness for herself, as well as understand that it means in a greater sense, but the ending (spoiler alert) seems to suggest that simply a child will solve all problems. Granted, I'm sure it dos for many, but I was confused that that was the conclusion for this book specifically.
April 22, 2022
I can't explain why I loved this book. Something about it clicked for me and I couldn't put it down. I read it quickly and didn't want it to end.
June 7, 2022
Evelyn sets aside her dissertation to go to work for the third-most popular internet company, using her knowledge of philosophy to work on a happiness app.
That's all I'll say about the plot. But let me say a little about why I enjoyed it so much.
I just floated through the reading of this book. It's everything I look for in a good book...quirky characters...uncertainty in the main character about how to proceed through life...gentle humor...a working-out of issues to the benefit of all...unexpected kindness...truth...a bit of philosophy...and a little more gentle humor.
That's all I'll say about the plot. But let me say a little about why I enjoyed it so much.
I just floated through the reading of this book. It's everything I look for in a good book...quirky characters...uncertainty in the main character about how to proceed through life...gentle humor...a working-out of issues to the benefit of all...unexpected kindness...truth...a bit of philosophy...and a little more gentle humor.
April 25, 2022
There are a lot of imperfections in Claire Stanford's first novel, _Happy for You_. There are threads introduced and then dropped; ideas dangled in front of us but not pursued, and important questions introduced but never analyzed. It's also not clear exactly when the book takes place - in the near-future/now? - or whether it aims to be a satire/black comedy, or a thoughtful serious examination. I also caught some minor grammatical errors that seemed out of place given the (fairly reliable) narrator.
Nonetheless, somehow Happy for You *works*. Although I never decided if the book was meant to be satire or not, and if observations are meant to be funny, towards the end, I stopped wondering. As to threads picked up and put down, that stopped bothering me too. And although I was not terribly in love with the protagonist (her boyfriend, on the other hand, is too good to be true), I felt compelled to stick around to discover the choices she made, because -- unlike SO MANY other romantic-ish books featuring a highly educated, clearly extremely intelligent woman -- this protagonist's choices always seemed to make sense in the context of her circumstances, as explained via rational argument from the rational-argument-leading host.
Plus - there were many things I loved about _Happy For You_. The depiction of working in the tech industry in San Francisco was spot-on (I know that for sure, having worked in the tech industry in San Francisco for almost 30 years). As was the description of Internet marketing and details like "trend forecasting." Even the geographical details about getting from A to B in SF were mostly accurate (with a few literary deviations, which I forgave - e.g. it is highly unlikely that Golden Gate Park would be on a person's walking route to/from work).
And the tone struck me as very Gen Z - my favorite generation (and not just because both of my teenage kids are in that generation). I loved the narrator's thoughtful examination of race, exploration of intersectionality, her detailed descriptions of constantly-occurring micro-aggressions and slights to mixed race individuals, and her rationally-argued, philosophically-backed, unflinching feminism, especially as applied to harm to all genders/sexes from cultural enforcement of strict gender roles.
Come to think of it, the combination of technological and philosophical forte within the context of a futuristic high-technology setting, to tell stories through a unapologetic feminist lens is EXACTLY what I look for when choosing books. At the top of that heady heap, I believe can be found NK Jemisin, Nnende Okorafor, Becky Chambers, Charlie-Jane Anders, and of course the woman who started it all: Octavia Butler. I look forward to reading more from Claire Stanford.
Nonetheless, somehow Happy for You *works*. Although I never decided if the book was meant to be satire or not, and if observations are meant to be funny, towards the end, I stopped wondering. As to threads picked up and put down, that stopped bothering me too. And although I was not terribly in love with the protagonist (her boyfriend, on the other hand, is too good to be true), I felt compelled to stick around to discover the choices she made, because -- unlike SO MANY other romantic-ish books featuring a highly educated, clearly extremely intelligent woman -- this protagonist's choices always seemed to make sense in the context of her circumstances, as explained via rational argument from the rational-argument-leading host.
Plus - there were many things I loved about _Happy For You_. The depiction of working in the tech industry in San Francisco was spot-on (I know that for sure, having worked in the tech industry in San Francisco for almost 30 years). As was the description of Internet marketing and details like "trend forecasting." Even the geographical details about getting from A to B in SF were mostly accurate (with a few literary deviations, which I forgave - e.g. it is highly unlikely that Golden Gate Park would be on a person's walking route to/from work).
And the tone struck me as very Gen Z - my favorite generation (and not just because both of my teenage kids are in that generation). I loved the narrator's thoughtful examination of race, exploration of intersectionality, her detailed descriptions of constantly-occurring micro-aggressions and slights to mixed race individuals, and her rationally-argued, philosophically-backed, unflinching feminism, especially as applied to harm to all genders/sexes from cultural enforcement of strict gender roles.
Come to think of it, the combination of technological and philosophical forte within the context of a futuristic high-technology setting, to tell stories through a unapologetic feminist lens is EXACTLY what I look for when choosing books. At the top of that heady heap, I believe can be found NK Jemisin, Nnende Okorafor, Becky Chambers, Charlie-Jane Anders, and of course the woman who started it all: Octavia Butler. I look forward to reading more from Claire Stanford.
June 19, 2022
I'm happy to be an outlier in loving this book so much. Beautiful writing that isn't overworked. A protagonist (Evelyn) who is reflective, mature, and often ambivalent as she goes through big transitions in life. Sharp observations about race, especially about identifying with more than one race. The author raises questions about tech and its impact on a person's sense of self, and she trusts the reader to think independently about the answers.
Plus I liked the brief digressions about whales and flowers. That might just be me.
This is really a book about parenthood. The scenes that will stick with me the longest involve Evelyn and her parents. Evelyn opening a box of clothes that her mother, who died years earlier, had put aside for her. Evelyn's father and his quiet but indispensable support when Evelyn has a crisis. Short, deeply sad stories by other characters about their own experiences with parents or as parents. Very high drama toward the end as Evelyn becomes a mother herself.
I think the marketing and timing of this book aren't helping it. The bubbly cover is a mismatch--this is a spare, meditative book. It's not a fish-out-of-water story about a woman of color trying to figure things out in Silicon Valley. It's not really a Ph.D-candidate-coming-of-age story either, and it suffers a little from being released around the same time as the good but zany Disorientation, by Elaine Hsieh Chao (superficially similar enough that I almost didn't bother with Happy for You).
I get wanting the comfort of a familiar story--smart heroine and her emotional support team take down the dude bros in Big Tech, mostly through witty dialog and just working twice as hard. This is not that story. It's both tighter and bigger and more relatable, less Legally Blonde and more Velveteen Rabbit.
Plus I liked the brief digressions about whales and flowers. That might just be me.
This is really a book about parenthood. The scenes that will stick with me the longest involve Evelyn and her parents. Evelyn opening a box of clothes that her mother, who died years earlier, had put aside for her. Evelyn's father and his quiet but indispensable support when Evelyn has a crisis. Short, deeply sad stories by other characters about their own experiences with parents or as parents. Very high drama toward the end as Evelyn becomes a mother herself.
I think the marketing and timing of this book aren't helping it. The bubbly cover is a mismatch--this is a spare, meditative book. It's not a fish-out-of-water story about a woman of color trying to figure things out in Silicon Valley. It's not really a Ph.D-candidate-coming-of-age story either, and it suffers a little from being released around the same time as the good but zany Disorientation, by Elaine Hsieh Chao (superficially similar enough that I almost didn't bother with Happy for You).
I get wanting the comfort of a familiar story--smart heroine and her emotional support team take down the dude bros in Big Tech, mostly through witty dialog and just working twice as hard. This is not that story. It's both tighter and bigger and more relatable, less Legally Blonde and more Velveteen Rabbit.
December 12, 2023
I think this book was trying to say a lot things, important and interesting things, but they ended up talking over one another (luv you Claire). There wasn't much to the plot and if it wasn't for the fact that this was a novel with characters, it probably would work better as a dissertation or essay on technology and happiness and race and algorithms and family and motherhood and everything else that was being discussed (again luv you Claire) (Claire was my first teacher of an english class at ucla and then i had her for an intro creative writing class my last quarter luv her)
August 14, 2022
Lots of nice contemplation about happiness and life, about not being Asian enough, marriage, children, all the mid-late 20s early 30s goodness.
Towards the end/the ending is kind of weak. I don’t know how it should close out either but there’s just not as strong and eloquent reflections as the beginning.
Towards the end/the ending is kind of weak. I don’t know how it should close out either but there’s just not as strong and eloquent reflections as the beginning.
March 16, 2022
Evelyn postpones-or abandons-her philosophy dissertation to take a job with the world's third most popular internet company. She is assigned to a team developing a happiness app, which hopes to use data to quantify and boost happiness in its users. Meanwhile, Evelyn's personal life takes some unexpected turns that have her questioning happiness and the meaning in her own life. Both Evelyn's professional and personal lives, and especially where they intersect, raise interesting questions about the nature of happiness, the intrusiveness of technology, data privacy, the meaning of work, and family.
May 28, 2022
Nope. This one didn't work for me. It has an interesting premise. Our protagonist deserts finishing her dissertation about the mind/body connection and takes a much higher paying job at the world's third largest internet company to help with an app to discern happiness. This is a world where bus stop advertisements read your personal information from your phone and promote things they think you would like. Only the one for the protagonist, doesn't seem to fit her. Also, when the app queries her about her happiness level, she's far from happy. Without spoilers, let's just say she finds happiness in a rather sexist and traditional way. Good potential but the follow through wasn't there.
March 21, 2023
Simultaneous surprised and not surprised by the relatively low ratings. Personally, I thought this was brilliant and very very timely. The tone and style reminded me a lot of Elif Batuman’s “The Idiot,” a rather passive narrator observes the perplexing elements that shape academia, the workplace, pop culture and makes incisive and very dry remarks.
Maybe another big part of why I liked it is because I identified so strongly with the narrator— I too grew up half-Asian in the Bay Area, surrounded by techies, puzzled and skeptical of today’s algorithm culture. It’s also the kind of novel I would write. Loved it.
Maybe another big part of why I liked it is because I identified so strongly with the narrator— I too grew up half-Asian in the Bay Area, surrounded by techies, puzzled and skeptical of today’s algorithm culture. It’s also the kind of novel I would write. Loved it.
May 30, 2022
I feel like the cover makes this book seem like it will be light hearted and funny, which it’s not. Still, it was an enjoyable read and very though provoking about the idea of happiness and what it means to people, how it’s obviously different for everyone and cannot (and should not) be one more thing that’s turned into an app or “codified.”
August 25, 2023
I liked this book but it wasn’t anything amazing. There is almost no plot and it focuses more on existential questions about happiness and social media and the influence of societal stereotypes on our lives. It also addresses the uncertainty of motherhood which I thought was an interesting conversation. The main character was bland, but I think that was purposeful to show how uncomfortable and uncertain she was about her life. Ok book overall, but only read if u can handle a book with almost zero plot.
July 4, 2022
Sometimes the best books aren't the ones that transport you to a fantastical world, full of action. Sometimes, the best books are the ones that talk about everyday moments, like going on a hike with a partner, sitting in a meeting at the office, or visiting your parent once a month. Happy for You by Claire Stanford immerses us in the life of Evelyn Kominsky-Kumamoto, who leaves her philosophy PhD program to work for the third-most-popular internet company. Helping the company create an app to measure and promote users’ happiness, Evelyn finds herself with more questions than answers about her own happiness and how it’s connected to the people in her life.
The novel follows Evelyn as she faces doubts and mixed feelings about marriage, motherhood, her biracial identity, and her father’s new girlfriend. I love Stanford’s writing style and how it so beautifully immerses you in Evelyn’s world and inner monologues as she assesses each new situation she faces. You gain an empathetic understanding of her questions about life and the spiraling anxiety that comes with a life in transition.
What I appreciate most about Happy for You is that it feels so tangible. It’s a book about real life. It highlights the everyday moments so many of us experience - career changes, shifting family dynamics, parenthood. These life changes shouldn't be seen as ‘not dramatic enough,’ even if they're not always the main focus of books. Stanford emphasizes the truth we hate to admit - that change is often simply a part of life. It cannot be controlled because sometimes, things just don't go along with the plan. We cannot standardize our emotions on a scale from 1-10 and think it will fix all our problems. We cannot measure happiness and expect it to mean the same thing for every person. Our lives are always shifting, and these changes affect different people in different ways. What matters is how we face these challenges. We can learn to lean on those who care for us, and look inside ourselves to find what matters most.
The novel follows Evelyn as she faces doubts and mixed feelings about marriage, motherhood, her biracial identity, and her father’s new girlfriend. I love Stanford’s writing style and how it so beautifully immerses you in Evelyn’s world and inner monologues as she assesses each new situation she faces. You gain an empathetic understanding of her questions about life and the spiraling anxiety that comes with a life in transition.
What I appreciate most about Happy for You is that it feels so tangible. It’s a book about real life. It highlights the everyday moments so many of us experience - career changes, shifting family dynamics, parenthood. These life changes shouldn't be seen as ‘not dramatic enough,’ even if they're not always the main focus of books. Stanford emphasizes the truth we hate to admit - that change is often simply a part of life. It cannot be controlled because sometimes, things just don't go along with the plan. We cannot standardize our emotions on a scale from 1-10 and think it will fix all our problems. We cannot measure happiness and expect it to mean the same thing for every person. Our lives are always shifting, and these changes affect different people in different ways. What matters is how we face these challenges. We can learn to lean on those who care for us, and look inside ourselves to find what matters most.
April 3, 2023
Well written and a page turner, but I had a very hard time connecting to the protagonist and her plight. Felt a little derivative and I didn’t get to know the characters as well as I’d like to.
May 13, 2022
An interesting and entertaining debut with a unique premise about modern motherhood, mental health and the Asian American experience. I enjoyed going on Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto's journey as she starts her first non-academic job working for a tech company that is developing an app to track people's happiness. With everything supposedly going right in her life (a new job, a supportive, loving partner, and impending motherhood), Evelyn is still struggling with her happiness levels. I really loved how diverse the main character was, being half Jewish and half Japanese, and the interesting side story about an orca whale grieving the death of her young baby. Great on audio narrated by Traci Kato-Kiriyama. This book is perfect for fans of books like The school of good mothers or Chemistry by Weike Wang.
December 29, 2022
I really wanted to like this book… the summary was very enticing — a book about a woman working for an app that will help users quantify their happiness with algorithms. It also said it would touch on race and the questions of motherhood and while it did, I found myself wanting it to go much deeper. The book fell really flat for me. It scratched the surface of interesting topics but didn’t go further and felt all over the place — not interweaving in a way that felt natural. Disappointed as I feel it had so much potential.
June 16, 2022
This book was a disappointment. It is about a Ph.D. student who gets a job at a large internet company to develop a happiness app called JOYFULL. I thought this was an interesting premise, but the book did not seem to go anywhere with it. This was supposed to be a big project at "the third largest internet company," but the app itself seemed totally simplistic, just asking people if they were happy, and if they were not, maybe showing them a short uplifting video. The book never really explained what the main character's role was in developing the app or how the app was supposed to work.
It seemed like the main character was not happy. She did not seem to have much emotion at all. She just passively observed the world with criticism and judgment, and did not seem to exercise much agency. She seemed to have a great life, which she did not appreciate at all. She had a loving family and partner, who she doesn't seem to care about or relate to. Her mother had died before the book began, and she didn't seem to have any feelings about her mother or her father's new partner.
The main character's mother was Jewish, and her father is Japanese. The father's new partner is involved in a Japanese Christian church. The main character doesn't have any opinion about the religion she was raised with (Judaism), or the church her dad and new partner take her to. There is no real explanation of why the main character identifies as Asian, but not Japanese, or Christian, or Jewish, or white. She identifies as not white, but to me seems to live a life of White privilege, not appreciating what she has.
She seems devoid of any identity or affect or feelings about anything. The main character just seemed like a totally boring person passively observing the world without any real engagement in it. Did the author assume the reader would relate to the unspoken thoughts and feelings of the main character as conveyed through sarcastic observation of everything in the world around her?
I suppose it's true that a happiness app would not work if it was not well though out, and a person just downloads it but doesn't use it. But so what? Was the main character's life supposed to illustrate something about the nature of happiness? If it was, I didn't get it.
It seemed like the main character was not happy. She did not seem to have much emotion at all. She just passively observed the world with criticism and judgment, and did not seem to exercise much agency. She seemed to have a great life, which she did not appreciate at all. She had a loving family and partner, who she doesn't seem to care about or relate to. Her mother had died before the book began, and she didn't seem to have any feelings about her mother or her father's new partner.
The main character's mother was Jewish, and her father is Japanese. The father's new partner is involved in a Japanese Christian church. The main character doesn't have any opinion about the religion she was raised with (Judaism), or the church her dad and new partner take her to. There is no real explanation of why the main character identifies as Asian, but not Japanese, or Christian, or Jewish, or white. She identifies as not white, but to me seems to live a life of White privilege, not appreciating what she has.
She seems devoid of any identity or affect or feelings about anything. The main character just seemed like a totally boring person passively observing the world without any real engagement in it. Did the author assume the reader would relate to the unspoken thoughts and feelings of the main character as conveyed through sarcastic observation of everything in the world around her?
I suppose it's true that a happiness app would not work if it was not well though out, and a person just downloads it but doesn't use it. But so what? Was the main character's life supposed to illustrate something about the nature of happiness? If it was, I didn't get it.
July 28, 2022
Loved the premise of the book and it has moments of interesting conceptual moves, connecting contemporary digital culture and collective desires to themes like motherhood and grief. However, the book rly became something in the end that I did not expect, and it didn’t all connect or work for me. Would have given this a 4 star, but I gave it a three because I felt a lot of the description was lackluster or lacking purpose. After recently reading the incomparable Luster, these narrative descriptions felt pedestrian in comparison (perhaps not a fair comparison).
May 12, 2022
A woman leaves academia without her PhD to join the third most popular internet company as their philosopher-in-residence. Her dissertation focus is the mind-body problem, and she enters the novel believing (or quasi-believing, the protagonist is very ambivalent by nature) that the body doesn't matter. This belief is about to be turned upside down, but first she has to werk. She contributes research on happiness to a wellness app called "Joyfull," but her recommendations are watered down when added to the actual product.
As I mentioned earlier, Evelyn is ambivalent about a lot of things: her job, her philosophy, her boyfriend who adorkably proposes after a desperate sprint to remove a swarm of ticks from their bodies on a camping trip, and her father's budding relationship with a religious Japanese woman over a decade after her mother's cancer death. When she finds out about
As I mentioned earlier, Evelyn is ambivalent about a lot of things: her job, her philosophy, her boyfriend who adorkably proposes after a desperate sprint to remove a swarm of ticks from their bodies on a camping trip, and her father's budding relationship with a religious Japanese woman over a decade after her mother's cancer death. When she finds out about
May 30, 2022
Didn't really care for the main character... awkward since it seems like she's closely based on the author!
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May 20, 2022I feel very "meh" about this book. I was really excited by the idea of the big tech/happiness app part of the storyline, hoping it would read a bit like The Circle - and enjoyed those parts of the book the most. However, I struggled to connect with Evelyn (and I literally just finished this book 30 minutes ago and had to reach for her name.....that's telling) and/or anyone else in the book. My favorite characters were those in the 2nd and 3rd tier - Kumiko, Sabine, and energy-bar guy, as they felt the most real to me.
June 22, 2022
I didn’t expect to like Happy For You this much, but it turned out to be an altogether different book from what I imagined. It still had elements of eerie tech satire and workplace disillusionment, but the latter is able to spread to the narrator’s life and future, as she is unsure and ambivalent, while worried about being unsure and ambivalent. The novel’s central question is if happiness can be quantified, and depicts the ridiculousness with which our society embraces aesthetic emotional trends. I really loved Evelyn’s inner monologue, which succeeds in being unique to her character while still extremely relatable. A lot of people may not like the direction the story takes, but it made a lot of sense for the character and in a way feels gentle and soothing for the reader. Small growth occurs, which feels very true to life. It was a quick, lovely read! Also loved the inclusion of the Katie Kitamura reference, so points there.
February 8, 2023
The sweet, slice of life style of novel that gives us a look into a young biracial woman in California as she goes through big stages of life. None of the writing is immediately compelling, but it’s the type of prose that sometimes maps directly onto your own lives experience and gives you a gentle, new insight into your own past by sitting with the narrative for a bit. I ended up enjoying this book a lot more than I expected because of moments like these that made me reflect on my own life experiences.
May 31, 2022
this book is totally up my alley - the writing is beautiful and thoughtful, i liked being in evelyn's head and i'm sad to leave her. i liked the pacing, too, and wasn't expecting the plot to escalate like it did. anyway, maybe not for everyone but definitely for me
April 10, 2023
I really enjoyed the philosophical aspect of this book. It was insightful without being snotty. I also think that if I wrote a book, I would write it like this. It had good real emotion, and it wasn’t a thrilling page-turner; but, it was good nonetheless.
January 17, 2025
I absolutely LOVED so many parts of this book.
Dissapointed at the abrupt finish - but I guess there wasn't much more story to tell.
I will definately read again some day - so many ear marked pages and quotes throughout with beautiful theories and themes and ideas.
Reccommend.
Dissapointed at the abrupt finish - but I guess there wasn't much more story to tell.
I will definately read again some day - so many ear marked pages and quotes throughout with beautiful theories and themes and ideas.
Reccommend.
August 15, 2021
3.5 stars
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