Happiness Falls

It’s official: Angie Kim is one of my favorite writers. As much as I raved about Miracle Creek, it’s one thing to say that you love an author when you’ve only read one book; well, now that count is at two, and I know my original inclinations have been affirmed. If a book makes you stay up until 6 AM when you have to get up for work in 2 hours… it was clearly a masterful effort.

The themes don’t pull any punches—linguistics, the relation between rationality and emotionality, family dynamics (especially in the case of a special-needs child), the immigrant experience, and even the Covid-19 pandemic. (I was impressed that Kim incorporated the pandemic so unapologetically—and even critically—in the novel; so many contemporary authors either try to ignore it or seem to pretend it didn’t happen.) These are relatable themes on many levels, but the entire package felt so tailored—the characters, the premise, the narration—that it will be hard for this review to sound nuanced.

Mia as a protagonist took some warming up, but once I did, I sympathized with her. She has a standard gifted college student life and is dealing with everyday issues like a seemingly inattentive boyfriend; she has a loving (if annoying at times) family that she cares for and is cared for by; she is overly intellectual to a fault and puts a lot of pressure on herself. Many of Mia’s qualities felt identical to my own experiences. Kim masterfully makes her voice quite distinctive—she tries to over-rationalize everything, even her father’s disappearance, and keeps her emotions at bay amid such turbulent events.

Her other family members were decently well-developed; I wish I got to know more about John, her brother, but he plays almost a slightly more secondary role overall. This is, after all, Mia’s version of the story. Of them all, Eugene shines as the brightest character. It is hard to speak of how I feel about Eugene’s character without getting into spoiler territory; but suffice it to say that he quickly grew to become my favorite. This story would not exist without Eugene (or their father). His characterization with Angelman syndrome was quite impactful and often reminded me of a video I’ve seen on SBSK (I refrain from sharing the link because it may be too spoiler-y). As with that interviewee, Kim makes sure Eugene is not merely spoken over or spoken for, but that he truly stands as a character in his own right.

This story is a mystery at its core; but Kim is not satisfied with wrapping things up in neat, tidy bows. If you are the kind of reader who needs every thread perfectly untangled and to be able to follow it all the way to its source, then this book may not be the one for you. There are answers and there are hypotheses; Mia’s own perspective on this story is obviously insufficient for ascertaining the ‘truth’. But that is part of the book’s charm—the mere fact that the truth can be so subjective, in other words. Moreover, what does it mean to access the truth when one of the primary figures involved is ‘nonverbal’?

I truly appreciate Kim’s sensitive handling of the subject matter in Happiness Falls. She came in ready to tackle some pretty serious themes and does so deftly. These issues are clearly close at heart and thus her own passion for conveying some of these ideas and perspectives added to my experience. As I’ve said about her previous book, her philosophical musings and threads are so fascinating—I just love the way her mind works, and here, she narrows in on the nature of happiness itself. Kudos, a topic authors have wrestled with for centuries! The concept of the ‘happiness quotient’ as described in the book is one I’m definitely taking with me; that is not to say I’ve completely agreed with all aspects of it, but it does make great food-for-thought.

I only regret that I’ve waited so long to finish writing this review, and thus, many of my initial impressions have faded; but even after all this time, this book is one I am fond to look back on, and whose ideas I have not forgotten, as I tend to do with many books. Angie Kim, I’m cheering you on for your next book and will be eagerly waiting in line!

P.S. I am delighted that one of my primary nicknames for my cat sounds like the Korean word for a silly fool (바보/babo). Sidenote—it is fascinating that one hypothesis for the etymology of this word is linked to prematurity: ‘a connection to 바사기 (basagi, “idiot”), ultimately from Chinese 八朔 (bā shuò, “eight months”), with premature birth implied’ (Source: Wiktionary).

Favorite quotes:
※ “I believe there’s a fine line (if any) between optimism and willful idiocy, so I try to avoid optimism altogether, lest I fall over the line mistakenly.”
※ “Don’t let what you already have be the baseline. Think of yourself before you gained what you have, and remind yourself how much you want that, what you already have—your spouse/partner, your family, your house, your job. Imagine you in an alternate universe where you don’t have your family, can’t have your kids or your partner, how desperate in that alternate-you would be to get what you have.”
※ “But sometimes semantics matter. Words matter. They influence our thinking.”