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Stories
by Lori Ostlund
Book Reviewed by:Nine exquisite stories that explore class, desire, identity, and the specter of violence that looms daily over women and the LGBTQ+ community.
An aspiring veterinarian survives a plane crash and starts life over in California. A woman mourns the loss of her childhood friend's innocence and rethinks justice. A queer teacher's sense of safety in the classroom is destroyed. With settings ranging from small-town Minnesota to New Mexico, from bars and bedrooms to a furniture store and a community college, Are You Happy? casts a spotlight on people who try—and often fail—to make peace with their pasts while navigating their present relationships and notions of self. In prose that is evocative and restrained, unpredictable and masterful, Lori Ostlund offers a darkly humorous and compassionate examination of America's preoccupation with loneliness, happiness, guns, and violence.
Excerpt
Are You Happy?
Marvin Helgarson smoked a pipe. When he listened to us, he nipped at the pipe—pah, pah, pah—the way that people who smoke pipes do, and when he told us things about our writing, he jabbed the pipe in the air for emphasis. I liked Marvin Helgarson. He was tall, not just everyday tall but tall even by Minnesota standards, though that's not why I liked him. I'm just trying to give details, what Marvin Helgarson called "salient features."
The class met Tuesday evenings in the Humanities Building library, sixteen of us wedged in around two long wooden tables that came together in a T with Marvin Helgarson at the head. It felt like Thanksgiving the first night, all of us too close together and filled with dread, though later, after Marvin Helgarson explained about perspective, I could see that maybe that was just my perspective.
"Liars and thieves," said Marvin Helgarson to get things going. "That's what you get with a room full of writers." He rose and swept ...
Several stories center around family, highlighting complicated dynamics and dysfunction, including "The Gap Year," "Aaron Englund and the Great Great," "Just Another Family," and "Are You Happy?" Some are stronger than others in evoking emotion. "The Gap Year," unique in its exploration of tragedy and loss, showcases how valuable and essential a loving and understanding partnership is, as it can carry you through unimaginable heartbreak. "Clear as Cake" and "The Stalker" give insight into the sometimes harsh realities of writing workshops. "The Peeping Toms" and "The Stalker" are unsettling in their stark portrayal of the danger men pose to women, the lack of credibility given to women when they feel their safety is in jeopardy, and the toll this takes...continued
Full Review
(987 words)
(Reviewed by Letitia Asare).
Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things
Are You Happy? is bright, swift, and heartbreakingly direct in its portrayal of how home can sometimes leave a lingering bruise. Seriously, how does she do it?! Lori Ostlund is funny and wry; her work cuts to the quick. Every story I read made me feel deeply known. I've long been a fan of hers and this book does not disappoint. A short story collection that is truly all hits, no misses. Laura van den Berg, author of State of Paradise
Are You Happy? is a brutally hilarious heartbreaker. In Lori Ostlund's brilliant stories, the shadows of childhood reappear without warning, threaten to swallow the adult lives her characters have worked so hard to build, and violence lurks under the placid surface of the everyday. There is not one false line in this tremendous collection.
Several stories in Lori Ostlund's Are You Happy? follow characters who are either teachers or students in writing workshops. Writing workshops are intended to help students strengthen their writing process through guidance and feedback from professionals and within a community. Outsiders don't always get much insight into what these classes are like and how it feels to be a part of them. As seen in Ostlund's stories, these spaces can draw an array of personalities and create emotional experiences for those involved.
In "Clear As Cake," a class consists of 16 students who meet every Tuesday: "It felt like Thanksgiving the first night, all of us too close together and filled with dread." Students sharing their writing with a group...
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