Lizzie Quealy has every reason to be happy. In Jim she has the kind of partner every woman envies (the ones who do their fair share of housework and child rearing) she has two gorgeous children, a successful career, a best friend and below average money worries. In fact, happiness is a subject close to Lizzie’s heart, a subject she has researched in depth for her stand up comedy show and has now been contracted by the BBC to turn into a television series. Travelling to London for pre- production meetings throws Lizzie in the path of an old flame, Tom. Now very much married, with his own perfect wife, lovely child and successful career, neither are prepared for the tumultuous emotions that overwhelm them on meeting again.
“Virtue never tested is no virtue at all.” says Billy Bragg, liberally quoted throughout the novel, and with eyes open wide, Lizzie allows her feelings for Tom to takeover, risking all the happiness she already has for the chance of another kind of happiness.
There are many things that are clever and entertaining about this novel. Deveny captures the awkward teenage years of 1980s Melbourne with the clarity of remembering only a Gen X can. Dialogue is whip-smart and the story crackles along at a fair clip. Sex is lusty, if somewhat anatomical, but perhaps that’s a reflection on Lizzie’s character rather than a stylistic issue. What makes this novel shine though is the exploration of its core theme of happiness. It is such a big concept with so many ways of looking at it but via Lizzie and her best friend Jules, Deveny engages in a wide-ranging discussion on the many factors that influence individual happiness and the price happiness, or even the quest for happiness, can extract.
Deveny’s style smacks you in the face with reality one minute and then mulls over the meaning of life the next. But what she does incredibly well in writing about love, happiness and marriage and all those complicated questions that pursue all of us in life, is make you think about what it means to be happy. The Happiness