Happiness for Beginners

St. Martin's Press

Happiness for Beginners
St. Martin's Press
2015

The Summary
"It was time, Helen Carpenter knew that.  Thirty-two and divorced for a year, Helen knew it was time--past time--to pull herself together.  She needed to do something wild and adventurous and completely out of character.  Which is why she signed up for a wilderness survival course in Wyoming.

"Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen Carpenter's well-behaved life:  three weeks in a remote mountain range where she will survive a summer blizzard, a group of sorority girls, rutting season for the elk, and more than one infuriating man.  Yet, despite the hardships and the indignities, the mountains bring their own wisdom to Helen's life, somehow teaching her the very things she needs to learn.  Like how to stand up for yourself.  How being scared can make you brave.  How the things you hold on to become the story of your life.  And, maybe most of all, how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you even have a hope of being found."

The Good
I absolutely loved listening to Happiness for Beginners.  After picking it out on a whim, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to Marguerite Gavin relate Helen Carpenter's story.  Gavin was an excellent narrator, lending her voice and attitude to Helen, making the story come to life.  It was an exceptional experience:  I found myself laughing in the midst of every chapter, thoroughly enjoying the narrator's company as I walked my dog.

Although I enjoyed the retelling of Katherine Center's novel, I also enjoyed the story and the characters.  Helen Carpenter is a candid narrator and a wonderful character, developing as her story builds and transforming from tentative, broken-hearted grade school teacher to a thoughtful, more knowledgeable woman.  She grows closer to her brother; she gains friends; she learns how to survive in the wilderness.

And it's wonderful to see how she develops, how she accomplishes her goals and, more importantly, manages to surprise herself in the end.

Her adventure is ludicrous--two weeks in the wilderness, surviving on her wits and little else--and her story is full of unintended twists, which even she acknowledges.  She goes in search of a new identity, in search of happiness and a piece of herself that she feels has been missing for years.  And she succeeds, reinventing herself, "rising from the ashes like a phoenix"--one of her many goals for her survival course.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to witness Helen's growth as a character.  Helen is really a wonderful character:  smart, a touch sarcastic, insightful, courageous and thoroughly grounded in reality.  As a recently divorced woman, she's been through the wringer and managed to come out on the other side--and I like that she succeeds in reinventing herself and reevaluating her life, as well as her relationships.

Overall, Happiness for Beginners was the perfect combination of narrator and story.  Something about the way the author wrote and Marguerite Gavin retold the story made me enjoy every minute of it.

The Bad
Some mild language and mature themes, which means it probably isn't for all readers, but it doesn't really detract from the story.  I loved it, nevertheless.

The Ugly
I loved that Katherine created such a candid narrator.  Helen Carpenter is a vivid storyteller, weaving emotion into every fiber of the novel, filling it with personal commentary and detail.  It's a wonderful story; however, her candid account means that she shares absolutely everything--even the most heart-wrenching, embarrassing and mortifying moments.

And, sometimes, it leaves you feeling just the tiniest it awkward for prying into the most personal areas of Helen's life.