SECRETS OF HAPPINESS by award-winning author Joan Silber is an absorbing, detailed, multi-character saga that traverses the planet, with vivid stops in Thailand. I loved every single character in this book. I loved the fumbling that lovers went through and the unpleasant surprises they threw on one another. I recommend this book wholeheartedly. Thank you NetGalley. Thank you Counterpoint Publishing.

Outstanding! Thought provoking stories where characters are connected in some way. I really enjoyed these stories but also trying to determine the connection from prior stories. I somewhat put off reading this for a couple of days because I thought it might be a self help book. While it’s not that format, I feel I did glean some peace and knowledge from these stories. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I DNFed at about 30%. I was vetting this book for a particular purpose, and I didn’t feel that it suited those purposes. The plot was interesting, but I found the prose a bit detached. Perhaps this served a purpose to the story, but at 30%, that wasn’t clear and I needed to move on.

I read all the wonderful reviews but I had the hardest time reading this book. The idea of using short stories that are tied together just didn’t work for me. There were many times I had to work very hard to see what the connection was. Much better done than other authors. I suspect I am in the minority but it was a very disappointing read.

More like a series of lightly connected short stories or character studies than a novel. Reading it as a novel, I found this book to be disjointed and difficult to follow for a through thread. But, the characters are well fevysnd the writing beautifully done.

Secrets of Happiness is a story of family, friendship, and love, spanning three continents.

Joan Silber has a clever way of bonding the characters in funny, honest, and very relatable situations. Their lives are interconnected and woven intricately through the novel, and their voices are strong.

The reader becomes immersed with the various characters—Ethan, Joe, Maribel, Rachel, and Saul, all tied together by Gil, a man with secrets, a second family. We navigate through their complicated lives, experiencing both empathy and compassion.

I thoroughly enjoyed Secrets of Happiness and read it quickly, anticipating the ending and how happiness is defined by each character. A big thanks to NetGalley for letting me read it. #SecretsofHappiness #NetGalley

Joan Silber has written some wonderful books, but this may be my favorite. She employs a convention I particularly like - her novels consist of interlocking stories in which the characters are related. The underlying thread that weaves through these stories is love, most specifically, familial love in all its messiness. Brothers and sisters, parents and their offspring, how people meet, how they stay together and what binds them or tears them apart. Whether it was as one character supposes "... the whole notion of families was misguided and false"... or as later he thinks when he discovers the ties are inescapable, "Were you always and forever what you were born into? I had set up my life relying on other principles." There is not a clichéd or boring situation in any of these stories, and as they intersect, Silber's characters find themselves if not all the answers.

Who knows where happiness comes from? In this exquisite new book by Joan Silber, the vanity of grasping for happiness—which is destined to slip out of our hands—is revealed through six interlocking narrators. Their tenuous grip is revealed as the very nature of what makes them happy shifts its shape.

It all starts with a man named Gil—a husband and father who is revealed to have two families after he suffers a stroke. Both his American and his Thai-born wife have two children each, and surprisingly, the wives they master the art of restraint in dealing with each other.

And then it spirals out from there. We discover the stories of Gil’s adult gay son, Ethan—who finds himself in his own love triangle—as well as Joe (the son of the Thai-born wife) and his girlfriend Veronica who married a wealthy man named Schuyler who is having an affair with a British woman named Maribel. And then we meet Rachel, whose brother Saul is dying of cancer, and Bud who was raised by John Birchers, and Tara from transitioned from Kathmandu to Berkeley and other characters, some of whom have six degrees of separation.

The quest for happiness, Joan Silber seems to be saying, is universal as we span countries and genders and ages and ethnicities. And sometimes, the lessons we learn are not the ones we expect to learn: that happiness can come from leading an authentic life or letting go of a material possession or an expected way of living our life. A one-time lover from far away, the dying lover of a current lover, a husband’s secret second wife—all of them provide insights and ways to move forward.

Joan Silber, as always, writes as if it were effortless (and this is merely an illusion) and infuses her nuanced characters with a kind of quirky wisdom. Despite some situations which at first appear to be sad, what ties these stories together is the hope of redemption and the belief that the possibilities of some form of happiness exist, even if in impermanence. A big thanks to #CounterpointPress and #NetGalley for the opportunity to become an early reader of an author I’ve long loved.

SECRETS OF HAPPINESS
BY JOAN SiLBER

I have been a devoted fan of Joan Silber's writing for twenty plus year's. You can imagine how excited I was to see this novel arrive on my dashboard. Joan writes interesting and unique literary fiction that is way above average. I didn't even read what this was about I knew that I would enjoy it and it didn't disappoint me as she never has before.

In the very beginning we learn that the husband and father of a long term marriage has had a secret family with two adult children that live near by. He was always travelling or away from home on business but now we understand why. These aren't spoilers as it is something said in the synopsis and happens very early on.

What I found amazing is how civil the two wives are to each other when learning about this infidelity because the husband suffers a stroke and some mini strokes that makes him not act himself. The long term wife handles her husband's infidelity and second family like its not a big blow. There are many character's and a lot going on which I appreciated. The writing is smooth and seamless.

Maribel and Schuyler having an affair in England. She know's Schuyler is married to Veronica in New York but goes ahead and continues. When he takes a call and leaves the room, she gets jealous. An accident happens. Maribel has what could be a hard phone call, but she shows great self restraint.

Rachel and her brother Saul who has leukemia and Saul's long term boyfriend named Kirk whose apartment was his meant Saul having to find a new place to live. Saul is a 57 year old librarian with little money. Rachel is stunned and outraged but she always liked Kirk. Saul says don't make a big deal out of this. And what the outcome is surprising.

Joan Silber is a master of infusing the gray area into her characterizations and their realizations. She makes us feel the good of humanity in ending each of her multi-character vignettes find that upbeat ray of hopefulness and redemption. That is what I love about reading her work. There could be gut wrenching sadness but she leaves each scenario with level headed prose that is not depressing.
Highly recommended. This one is my favorite of her novels. There is so much more to this multilayered character driven narrative. There are many diverse character's and places but it is simple to keep them all straight in your mind because they are memorable.

Publication Date: May 4, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Joan Silber and Counterpoint Press for generously providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#SecretsofHappiness #JoanSilber #CounterpointPress #NetGalley

Silber's clever family-oriented novel is filled with familiar, yet diverse characters. Soon in the novel, we learn that the married father of a family with adult children, a man who spent a large portion of his time traveling in Asia for his job, had a new family that he brought over from Thailand, living not far from them.

The novel is told through numerous characters, characters who initially are much easier to recognize and then others, that left me wondering who we were now being introduced to, which at times slowed down the pace for a bit, but then the original characters returned, and the novel took a turn where the characters merge on different levels, to take care of a man dying of leukemia.

The secrets of happiness are not that secretive in the end, and the happiness is also less secretive, as we see how this father, the father who dies early on in this novel, is connected to so many people in so many countries, in so many ways, and how that connection is to some degree the secret of their happiness.

I’m so passionate about these interconnected stories - more than I can contain my deepest appreciation.
We seldom see fiction written like this—masterly-connected - brimming with rebellion and deceptions - exploring the world of nuance and complexity, brought to life through the authors relentless quest for the humanity of each of her characters.

This isn’t the first time I’ve read books by Joan Silber.....and her seamlessly brilliant woven storytelling-talents > the consequences that one character has another....but “Secrets of Happiness” is my favorite ....( and believe me I enjoyed her other books), which is why the second I saw this one— I wanted to read it.
I didn’t even read the blurb— I just knew I was in the mood re-visit Joan Silber.

The spokespeople are six voices: Ethan, Joe, Maribel, Rachel, Bud, and Tara.

Ethan begins and ends these interwoven tales.
Ethan: ( the story ‘begins’)....
“My father was on the road a lot when I was growing up, off to parts of Asia to oversee the cheap manufacture of ladies’ garments. You couldn’t stay still, he said in today’s business world. ‘Ever ask him about the local babes?’one of my friends wanted to know. ‘You should go with him next time, Ethan’. He was just being a smartass— we were fifteen-year-old boys at the time, obnoxious whenever we could be”.
It was the late 1980’s, Ethan actually had a crush on his friend Mike.... not his first crush but Ethan was still keeping things to himself.
Ethan wasn’t out until his first year of college.
He met his first serious boyfriend, Robert, while at Yale. Ethan’s parents were accepting of Ethan’s sexuality ... and liked Robert.
It was the gay humor from his contemporaries he didn’t understand.
Ethan and Robert lasted a full year as a couple, and they weren’t even angry when it ended”.
Later, Ethan becomes a lawyer and moves in with a new boyfriend, Tony. And....there will be much more to learn about Ethan....as all the other characters.

Ethan’s mother, a teacher, was a great support of Ethan....
But/and.... something changes for Ethan’s mother. She could benefit from some support herself!
Something happens to Ethan’s father too....
And Ethan has his own life to journey...

Joe’s High School girlfriend, Veronica, wanted him to marry her.
Instead — she marries Schuyler....( for five years).... much more where this story goes too ( Joan can spin a tale in directions you can’t even guess)...

Maribel....
When we first meet Maribel she was working on a film shoot, a runner, and Great Britain.
It was a documentary about textile mills in the 19th century. She did minor tasks.
Schuyler was on the camera crew, he was always decent to everyone.
Maribel knew that he was going back to New York. She could see his wedding band, but she started seeing him anyway.
It wasn’t hard to get him to take her back to his hotel room.
Maribel says...
“I was a model of sunny good nature, a production assistant sprinkled with pixie dust, and everybody did what I said. Everybody loved me”.
The filming was going to take four weeks.
Schuyler had gotten married right out of college. “Who did that anymore?” Maribel knew better than to ask him, but she wanted to believe that he had felt sorry for her.

Rachel ( Sister Susie) < an inside joke .... had some balls. She was a kick ass character if she was pissed. Her brother, Saul, was sick... and she was going to protect him while maybe stick needle pins in the eyes of his ex-boyfriend ...if needed.
Not to worry.... both brother and sister have their own journey we follow.

Nadia (not one of our prime narrative voices....but we will remember her).... i’ll just say she’s the youngest of the group.

Bud.....
THIS IS THE STORY I FOUND MOST GUT-WRENCHING....( due to my own semi-estrangement from our oldest daughter). I put the book down for a day to think about this story from all sides.... before reading on....
I rather not share much about Bud.....but he’s the character I will think about most.
I’ll only share a tidbit:
THIS IS YOUNG Bud....
“I managed to graduate from my stuffy prep school; I’ve pbeen there enough days, and they gave up on me. I hadn’t applied to any colleges— I’d always thought I’d have to, or else be drafted, but the war wound down and the draft ended, just in time for me. My parents thought I should work for a year to give me a chance to mature, and I had spoken to one of their friends about a future in retail management, whatever that was. Of course, the night after graduation I was gone, escaped on a train with a duffel full of books and sweaters and underwear”....
This family story ....involving years of travel, jobs, and confusing relationships — will stay with me for years....I’m still learning from it.

Tara....
We get backstory about Tara‘s mother, boyfriends, swiping pharmaceuticals from the doctors office— influenced by a guy....
Then there’s another guy...and Tara is born from ‘one of these guys’...
Spent the first nine years living in Kathmandu Nepal. A happy childhood.
“Who knew where happiness came from? Well actually, there were theories. In Buddhism my father sometimes followed you heard arguments on the vanity of grasping for happiness. Whatever you ran after and clung to was destined to slip out of your hands, melt like snow, dissolve into thin air. What could be more obvious? The truth of impermanence was somehow a cheering idea to my father. He scoffed at the penny-ante ambitions most people knocked themselves out for. He believed in freedom, my father”.

Tara, and her sister, Apsara, move to Berkeley, as children - with their free-spirit parents.... and it’s quite an adjustment for everyone. Tara and Apsara missed the free-style living in Nepal.
People who move to Berkeley discover it’s not completely as liberal as they might have thought. Berkeley values education..not just climbing trees....and playing hopscotch....and smoking pot.

MUCH MORE - MUCH MORE —FASCINATING STORYTELLING from all these characters....while doing some traveling... Thailand, New York, Cambodia, Great Britain,... etc.

These stories ( parenting themes, families, LGBTQIA, and relationships of all kinds), are tightly packed with ingenious sides with surprising wisdom that gives this book the ultimate heft!

Thank you Counterpoint Press, Netgalley, and Joan Silber

LOVED IT!!!
Comes out in May, 2021

This book explores a myriad of characters whom are all connected through love and family. What intrigued me with each single individual whether it be Rachel, Tara, Saul or Ethan, is that they all held something back from others as if being fully exposed and vulnerable would lead to fleeting happiness. I think the message of this book is that the secrets of happiness is that there is no one hard and fast rule and that it is truly chosen just how we choose how to live as well as whom to share it with. An intellectually stimulating and intriguing read.