I loved this lyrically written book.Sabrina Orah Mark has written a gorgeous memoir a book of her life full of joy sadness family memories.I will be recommending and gifting this unique book to friends.#netgalley #random-house

I love this book! Already a big fan of Mark's Paris Review column, I was excited to read this rich and complicated essays as a collection, A beautiful, heartbreaking and joyful look at mothering, race, gender, family life and religion. So good!

This was a peculiar book about the impact of fairy tales in daily life, very entertaining if you like personal anecdote-style memoirs by someone who isn't a celebrity but has had an interesting life you might relate to all the better than you could with someone famous.

The author mixes snippets of her life and her family's experiences with commentary on fairy tales, how they came to be, what they're supposed to mean, their symbology, and how she views them personally. For example, for Pinocchio, she tells the anecdote of when her son was carving little bits of wood and calling them Ghost People, which spooked his teacher that had to call her apart and lecture her on it. From this, she goes off on the particulars of the tale, a pattern she repeats all over the book. It's not separate analysis, and definitely not academic, it's all so well-mixed she can jump from talking about a fairy tale to telling an anecdote and back to fairy tale and then on to rely conversations with family.

Because of this style, it's a bit all over the place; some parts read like stream-of-consciousness, and the lack of breaks when jumping between topics can make it a bit difficult to read. The chapters are organised by topic and have a title that announces the topic discussed, but the writing style isn't that organised and does require a while to get used to. Personally, I never did, so whilst I enjoyed the commentary and the perspective she brought to the table (the author is Jewish, so she has insights on some tales I'd not have thought of), the writing style meant I didn't as much as I would possibly have. Nonetheless, it was a worthy read, especially because of the layman-friendly and conversational tone.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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“I am so far away from where I’ve never gone and what I’ll never know and who I’ll never be, it is impossible to tell if on that path I am radiant or falling to pieces.”

Happily is stunning and heartbreaking and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Sabrina Orah Mark’s gorgeous prose weaves together a memoir and fairy tales, and the result is a collection of essays that blur the lines between reality and fantasy and spill over with emotions so visceral that I wanted to buy a physical copy of this book, cut out (or just take photos of) entire paragraphs, and send them to my friends so they could experience these words alongside me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Happily" is a delightful, insightful and powerful book. Through the use of fairy tale tropes, Sabrina Orah Marks writes the stories of her family and inner circle in ways that are fresh and imaginative. Highly recommended for lovers of nonfiction, memoirs, and/or fairytales. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.