How Happy to Be

by Katrina Onstad

Sharp, urban, witty, wise — this sparkling debut is the thinking woman’s answer to chick lit Maxime is an entertainment writer at a flailing neo-con newspaper. She’s been dining out too long, literally and figuratively, on a culture of celebrity worship and empty punditry. She seeks refuge from her better judgment in endless parties, ritual substance abuse, and half-hearted attempts to get herself fired, but in a libertarian newsroom where outrageous spin is the easiest way to sell papers, her bad-girl behaviour just wins her more accolades.

Along this path of self-destruction, Max’s past, comic and poignant, keeps intruding: memories of her mother’s brutal death and her hippie father’s crippling breakdown; the reappearance of an aging vegan idealist who briefly played her stepmom on the West Coast commune where she came of age; tender realizations about the bad artist she was supposed to marry and a long-lost boyfriend who seems exotically sane. When a host of prior indiscretions finally catches up with her, Maxime realizes that any chance at happiness depends on uncovering, at last, her one true story.

Set during the madness of the Toronto International Film Festival and weaving back and forth between Max’s commune past and her newsroom present, How Happy to Be portrays with razor-sharp insight and bittersweet wit a modern woman’s descent into — and eventual escape from — the deafening pop culture noise of the early twenty-first century. Intelligent, savvy, this novel marks the arrival of a remarkable new fiction talent.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Katrina Onstad is an award-winning culture writer and novelist whose work has appeared in publications around the world including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail and Elle. The Weekend Effect, a manifesto for time off, is her first non-fiction book.

Katrina's novels include How Happy to Be and the national bestseller Everybody Has Everything, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. A former film critic at the National Post, TV executive at CBC and co-host of the Rogers movie show Reel to Real, she lives in Toronto with her family.

Reviews

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a debut, but not tedious or too hamfisted. Pretty great depiction of the Toronto culture media scene circa the early to mid 2000's. This is contrasted with a normal-turned-hippy youth, which makes for a few interesting points. Basically it's a book about transitioning out of an unhealthy lifestyle, while making rather incisive but ultimately tame criticisms of what amounts to celebrity-journalism.

Onstad has an important point, because tabloid news bled over into 'real, serious' media, including news broadcasts and newspapers and has not gone away. It was great to read a book about a National Post writer, writing about an era in which I actually read the National Post, as mind-boggling as that may be for many reasons. I got most of my enjoyment out of this book because it is so concerned with the trivial shallowness of the world (especially, but not limited at all to media and arts).

It's nowhere near American Psycho levels of good, but Canadian Psycho still has to be written and these days it would take place in Calgary, not Vancouver or Toronto. Or would it? I got no real answers from this book. It wasn't how I'd attack arts and entertainment pages in Canadian newspapers (truly an unworthy target, ultimately) but then again I have no experience in the business.

Pretty good for what I feared would be immensely fluffy, toothless 'chicklit'. If you hate movie festivals, go get this. It's pretty good and it won't cost you more than a week (or even several days of light reading, depending on your approach) to get it done.

[Magdelanye · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if every hand that laid itself on our bodies left a print? We could read each other better. p60

It's staggering what the human body is capable of now, how many places our heads can be at one time. p117

Maximes head is all over the place. Born into the counterculture when it had almost disappeared, mother died young, father a free spirit almost unknown, she has left the commune for the fast pace of Toronto where she writes the celebrity column for the daily newspaper. Her life is hectic and she is increasingly disenchanted with everybody and everything. She is a real bitch, and I almost gave up on her as she whined and bragged and ranted, occasionally coming out with a brilliant one liner. And gradually,as I began to appreciate the wit, I realized that occasionally, writing about the backstage world, she nailed it.

It is a talent of the very rich and very educated to be viciously ambitious while appearing disinterested at the same time. p121

Never read it, but read about it. p259

Was it my growing empathy with Maxime that made it seem as if the writing got better and that I enjoyed the last half of the book a lot more? (in spite of an unbelievable and irritating love interest). Certainly the issues that she brings to the forefront are vital and often pushed to the side. Of course we are haunted by our pasts, alienated and stressed and anxious and often overwhelmed and perhaps secretly depressed out of our minds. And maybe it makes sense that we come to dislike Maxime before we can come to love her.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't care for this book. I skimmed the whole thing and could still keep up with the plot which is never a good sign. Too many nicknames for people in the office as well. It was annoying.

[Ursula Pflug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review appeared in The Peterborough Examiner in August, 2006.

How Happy To Be
by Kristina Onstad
McLelland & Stewart, 2006
$24.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN: 0-7710-6897-2

Review by Ursula Pflug

530 words


Toronto arts journalist Kristina Onstad’s debut novel How Happy To Be takes place during the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s an insider’s view and as such is a funny, acerbic tattle tale. Like other reporters, entertainment writer Maxine doesn’t really make enough to live on; a perk is being able to rub shoulders with the glitterati. The world portrayed is stunning in its shallowness. Even thoughtful, highly educated film writers eventually turn to writing celebrity fluff pieces because that’s what sells papers. Sad but true.

Maxine’s past consists of twelve years with a nice but lame artist, who, narratively, exists in order for Maxine to have lots of soul searching inner monologues. When did it all go wrong? Where did all the furniture go? Why do I now have sex with people I don’t even like much when I’m bored or lonely or both?

All leads to the biggest question, the search for Mr. Right. The probably entirely truthful look at the a and e media scene in Toronto is wonderfully well done; but when Theo is described the novel breaks down a little. We can already see Hugh Grant in the role.

What saves it is Onstad’s description of Maxine’s childhood, including her mother’s early death from cancer on a Gulf Island hippie commune. While Onstad takes stabs at this milieu too, there’s a wistful melancholy in her descriptions of the sumptuous nature, the sensible, kindly women, the commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

Onstad has pointed out in interviews that while she grew up in Vancouver, the commune environment was not her childhood, and that while she’s had Maxine’s career, including a long term stint as the National Posts’s film critic, she didn’t have her protagonist’s party animal self destructiveness. It’s important to remember that semi-autobiographical first novels are just that: semi-autobiographical.

Problem is, why does the admittedly highly marketable chicklit category even exist? Why are women not writing about politics in their novels, a larger world?

In an attempt perhaps, to ponder this question, there is the occasional intrusion of Toronto’s Tent City issue into the narrative but it mostly serves as counterpoint: Maxine knows her work is superficial, and that she should be writing about the homeless, or doing something for them, but....she’d rather not bother. The parties aren’t as good.
Is Maxine likeable? Well, she’s drunken and slatternly and lazy, none of which is cause for her to be fired, adding, as it does, to her bad girl writer’s persona, and it must be said, she’s a sharp and funny writer, just like Onstad. However, it came as a bit of a surprise (but shouldn’t have, given the genre formula) that nice, serious, handsome, brilliant Theo fell so hard for her. Maybe he has rescuer syndrome.

I had a good cry with this one, and if one of the purposes of well done chicklit is to serve as catalyst for emotional purge, well, Onstad can do it. Still, I’d rather she veered away from the genre in her next novel, and took on some themes with greater depth and scope. She obviously has both the smarts and the insight to pull it off.

[Corinne Wasilewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. I loved the writing style. The book was fast-paced with a wonderful rhythm. I loved the scenes from the main character's childhood and also the scenes with Theo. I loved that Theo was from Saint John, NB (by the way it's Saint John not St. John!) although I have yet to meet an English speaking New Brunswicker named Theo. Just sayin'. I also thought the writer did an excellent job at portraying the main character's emotional arc from abandoned child to detached,with-holding teen/young woman to someone who has learned to forgive and is willing to reach out to love and be loved. What I didn't like and even hated were all the scenes to do with the newspaper and entertainment writing. These scenes were steeped with a sarcasm and cynicism I found hard to stomach -- I almost put the book down unfinished early on because the beginning scenes were filled with this and no clues dropped that the story might progress to something bigger and better later on.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a smart and funny book. Katrina Onstad is a talented writer. The book was written about 15 years ago, and was 'of the moment' at that time. It is interesting to read it now and observe how much has changed - the iPhone was not yet a reality. Is the 35-year old today as immature as those she depicts in this book? Is that really the modern cusp of adulthood? This is one of the messages I took from the book. I found the dilemma which causes the central character's own crisis of maturity predictable and cliched. But the descriptions of her career in media and her different and challenging childhood were amusing. Living in Toronto, I mused about the actual people who inspired the characters in the book. I was looking for a lighter read after several sad books and this was good for that.

[happyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

i had trouble relating to the protagonist. the story is almost a late blooming coming of age story (which i usually like), but maxime is so spoiled and ungrateful that it becomes depressing reading about her complaints.

that being said, it is well written and at times very funny. and having lived both in vancouver and toronto, it was nice to read about these two cities through the eyes of the main character.

[Pooker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like Maxine when I started reading this book. I thought what a shallow wretched excuse for a woman in her thirties. Surely one got rid of the habit of coming into work hungover a decade ago. And if you don't like the job you've got, get out. Then I remembered my own early thirties and...well, never mind. But despite my annoyance with Maxine, Onstad's writing was so sharp and witty, I couldn't help but also be highly amused and entertained.

---to be continued---

[Sasha Boersma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tend to not read chick-lit, so thankfully this wasn't really. It's Onstad's first novel, which explains it's frequent jump cuts with little flow and limited segues. Her sarcasm is fantastic, which makes it easier to forgive the jarring elements. The cliche of the disgruntled 30-something turning herself around because of a magic beau and accidental pregnancy feels a bit like a big city, modern-day Cinderella story. But still pretty sweet.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel pleasantly surprised me. Ms. Onstad has written a stylish and hip little love story that also skewers big city journalism and the Toronto International Film Festival. The characters are very human and I found myself liking each of them. I can’t wait to see more from this up and coming new talent.

[Jenn Gruden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the cynical and off-kilter beginning, Maxine's past and her relationship to it, Toronto snark, and Max's drinking and out-of-control behavior. I totally hated that (spoiler, hope I have hidden this right) once she got pregnant, poof! Magic! She stops! It's not that I don't think it's possible, but it's just such a chick lit answer. But it was still a fun debut.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was really annoyed by the protagonist who was bored and hated her job and drank too much, blah blah blah. I liked the setting of Toronto and the media world, but found the protagonist whiny. By the end of the book, the plot had made itself clear and I was more at ease with the story.

[Judy Mayhew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast, funny trip through the shallow world of entertainment media types. It isn't until the main character faces her own personal crisis that the book becomes more satisfying and less of a peek into a world I wouldn't want to inhabit.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit overly sentimental at the end, but the snarky bits about the Toronto newspaper war were highly entertaining. Many very recognizable characters there -- I assume people who were in the biz will spot many more than I could.

[HiphopQuyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was entertaining to read this book about a celebrity journalist in Toronto who grew up in a commune on an island in BC, but the narrative is a bit formulaic. probably because it's autbiographical.

[Rebecca Dipti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was buddies with Katrina in HS so this was a great read for me.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that the story was set in Toronto but I found it difficult to get through sometimes.

[Ven · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lynne Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sassy 30-something entertainment journalist looks for direction and meaning in her life. it ends well.

A decently smart and somewhat snarky Canadian novel that makes for a quick engaging read.

[Lauren Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Onstad's more recent book, EVERYBODY HAS EVERYTHING, much more than this one. The inconsistent narrative style doesn't work for me, and the characters' actions are predictable.

[Erin]

It wasn't that it was terrible, it was actually really interesting, it's just not what I'm in the mood for now :)

[Cybele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever, cynical, redemptive, enjoyable.