Happenstance

by Carol Shields

His wife away for the first time, Jack is at home coping with domestic crises and two adolescents while immobilized by self-doubt and questioning his worth as a historian.

This is the husband's story now found in Happenstance: Two Novels in One About a Marriage in Transition, originally published on its own in 1980 as Happenstance.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Marriage

193 pages, Paperback

Published February 27, 1994

About the author

Carol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her successful 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award. Her novel Swann won the Best Novel Arthur Ellis Award in 1988.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read Carol Shields in 2003 (with Unless), then read a few of the novels and short-story collections published right before. After that I moved further backwards in time, to her first two novels, with plans to read all of her one day. Until this week, I hadn't picked her up since late 2008. While her third novel is not as good as the others I've read by her, it's still worthwhile, especially if you are a Shields fan.

I enjoyed the dated aspects of this novel set in 1970s Chicago, though while I'm sure there's a Chicago man who loved the Green Bay Packers at that time, I don't think he'd call a game in January between the Packers and the Chicago Bears a "post-season special." I know Shields lived in Canada for most of her adult life, but I would guess that's not a term in Canadian football either. I also know the Packers and Bears have rarely played each other in January in the post-season, and certainly not in the 70s, so that made me kind of cringe too.

The ending especially has elements that will later develop into pure Shields, humor and wit, even lovely thoughts, but the reader knows that Shields is not overly optimistic, as there's a alarming nod to a new issue of the times that certainly this historian father will have to deal with shortly, though he is clueless and even happy about it as the story ends.

Shields published A Fairly Conventional Woman shortly after this which tells the wife's story of the same week. The two novels were later collected in one volume called Happenstance: Two Novels in One About a Marriage in Transition. My library has neither the wife's story nor the two-in-one, so I'm off to find a used copy now.

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. A very clever concept. A story told from both sides, of a husband as one novella and then from the wife's side as a novella (and you had to turn the book over to go from one novella to the other). and it didn't hurt that I like the word 'happenstance'!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Nearly 3.5) Jack, a museum curator in Chicago, is writing a book about “Indian” trading practices (this isn’t the word we’d use nowadays, but the terminology ends up being important to the plot). He and his best friend Bernie, who’s going through a separation, are obsessed with questions of history: what gets written down, and what it means to have a sense of the past (or not). I loved all the little threads, like Jack’s father’s obsession with self-help books, memories of Brenda’s vivacious single mother, and their neighbor’s failure as Hamlet in a local production. I also enjoyed an epic trek in the snow in a final section potentially modeled on Ulysses.

[Sutter Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have been reading everything I can find by Carol Shields after picking up Stone Diaries at an estate sale. She's a marvelous writer, storyteller.
Altho Happenstance is considered two novels in one, and I'm sure each reads as a complete novel, I chose to switch back and forth as the mood struck me.
Quilters might really appreciate this book. I'm not one.
But the rest of us interested in other people's lives will find this very satisfying.
A dad taking care of the two teens while wife at a quilting convention, realizing how much that entails, and appreciating his wife even more.
Good subplots, the husband's best friend, a neighbor's attempted suicide.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, gentle, light read about a twenty year old couple’s life over five days, with half the book told from the husband’s perspective and half by the wife.

The couple reside in Chicago and have a teenage daughter and son. The wife, Brenda Bowman, has gone to a quilter conference in Philadelphia. We learn of her experiences in Philadelphia and the people she meets.

In Chicago Jack Bowman, a historian, is unsure whether to keep writing a book about American Natives, given he has just found out a similar book is about to be published. His best friend Bernie comes over to stay with Jack as Bernie’s wife has just told him she is leaving him. Jack comes to learn a little about his teenage children. His son decides to go on a week’s fast.

A very pleasant, worthwhile reading experience.

I have now read four of the author’s novels (Unless, The Stone Diaries, and Larry’s Party), and rated all at least four stars.

Happenstance, The Husband’s Story was first published in 1980, and Happenstance, The Wife’s Story was first published in 1982.

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written, intelligent, interweaving and diverging pair of stories, written from the wife’s and the husband’s perspective. Two lives are gradually revealed through the events of just a few days. You want to laugh, you want to cry - it is extraordinary how so much is contained in this gem of ‘ordinary’ life. Having read both stories once, I now want to do so all over again to pick up some of what I missed first time round.

[Maria Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This time it really worked, Carol Shields' playfulness with form. She literally turned things upside down, having half the book (the wife's story) be right side up and the other half, (the husband's story) be upside down. Of course the reverse could be said, that the husband's POV is right side up and the wife's is upside down. Point being, you had to turn the book upside down to read the other half's story. There really is no" better half" here: both sides are interesting and full of insight, written in third person but with full access to the darkest recesses of these two human hearts. Brenda and Jack are decent people so there is nothing bizarre or twisted, it's all very subtle. Sometimes I thought that Jack, the husband of the couple, was probably basically Carol Shields herself speaking and thinking through him. Certainly this was more the case with Jack than with Brenda the wife. Maybe because despite Jack being a man, he's also an intellectual like the late Shields, whereas Brenda is not quite so sophisticated. I think the upshot of this most enjoyable deep and playful exercise of a novel, er,
"two novels in one about a marriage in transition,"as it says on the cover(s) is that we all have our stories and our histories. Shields chose/created this couple to examine theirs, upon the occasion of the wife Brenda going away for a quilting conference and leaving the husband Jack to fend for himself and the kids for one long week.
What I particularly liked about this couple of novels in one, was the do-it-yourself element to the reading, in that one can decide to read wife's story first, or husband's story first or, as I ended up doing, bit by bit, back and forth, a few chapters of Brenda, then a few chapters of Jack, till one really does reach the middle, (obviously not at the exact same time.) I found the two stories kept perfect time with each other so that whatever was going on in one, when I flipped back to the other it all made 100% sense and seemed serendipitously to fit perfectly. I don't know if it was as much fun to write as it was to read, or whether Shields had a bit of a headache pacing things so perfectly. I do think that this worked much better than her award winning "The Stone Diaries" which placed photographs in the middle of the book. This middle, being an abstract meeting point, is much more powerful.

[Jerry Delaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

The edition I read was two novels in one, covering the same time frame with a married couple. The first one I read was the wife's tale as she traveled to a quilting convention, almost had an affair, and returned to Oak Park, IL. Then you flip the book around and read the story from the husband's view, as he stayed home in Oak Park.

I have always liked Shields' characterizations and how she explored the intricacies of marriage and how much we know - or don't know - each other. I really liked the wife's part but grew restless with the husband's story I just don't think he's that interesting. Her half of the book was 4 stars; his half was 2.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carol Shields "happenstance" was a nice diversion from the ordinary. Liked the original approach of having the wife tell her story and the husband telling his. Marriage and the journeys we take either away from home as Brenda or at home as her husband are often filled with surprises and learning about ourselves.

It was fun to revisit the 70s when cell phones did not exist and you could be alone with your thoughts.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the wife's side first, then the husbands. This book is told in a very interesting fashion. Marriage from both sides. I liked how she played with this form. However, I've know few marriages this nice although rocky at times. Do people really love like this or were my exes just jerks? Anyway , good book.

[Angela Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, read the wife's story first - and wonder if most would start the other end? - lots of content, thought provoking and entertaining, mirroring and separate. A quiltmaker myself, though not American, related to this theme and how it relates to the whole story including its end.

[Mike Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such great writing, such a wonderful story told through the eyes of husband and then wife.

[Andréa Lechner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this while going through Shields' output, and found it less fulfilling than books like The Stone Diaries and The Republic of Love. It is a bittersweet story which left me feeling as if I had missed out on the essentials of the relationship. Too much was left unsaid for me to find this novel truly accomplished.

[Marla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book (even though it was full of typos)!
An entertaining story, well-written, engaging. Reading Brenda's story felt like I was reading my own story, sort of.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carols Shields is a good writer but her choice of stories does not appeal to me. In this book I found her characters and her story of them uninteresting.

[Felicity J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book by Shields that is deft in its observations of relationships. I was drawn in by the he-said-she-said format but forgot it getting to know the main characters. In Shields' novels the everyday and commonplace are the focus and this just makes her novels more fascinating.

Instead of flowery sentiment on morality, you see the characters posed with ethical questions where decision is required.

Another thing I like in her writing is the sense of mindfulness the characters achieve in their chosen tasks.

The reason why I gave this 3 out of 5 stars is for one of the books strengths: the comfort in the familiar. This is not a book to push you out of your reading comfort zone. However, it is a book that will linger for me, probably because of the transitions both lead characters are going through.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this book. I had expected something much deeper and well written by Pulitzer Prize winning author. I found the plot interesting, but poorly developed. The characters were immature and shallow. I barely finished it and almost dropped it altogether.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Fidelity, quilts, middle-aged-ness, meaning of life.