This Is Happiness - Niall Williams - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Niall Williams

GENRE: Literary Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: September 5, 2019

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A literary fiction about a small Irish town and the changes it sees. A thinly-spread minimal plot, but what amazing writing and interesting characters! A book for those who savour the journey instead of rushing towards the destination.

Plot Preview: (Not much of a plot to preview this time.)

The story is set in the 1950s in a nondescript Irish village called Faha, so forgotten that electricity has still not reached it. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe, who stays with his grandparents, states how nothing ever changed in Faha, including the ceaseless rain. But now, some big changes are coming up. The rain has stopped and electricity is on its way to the village. Noel’s grandparents have taken in a sixty-something lodger named Christy, who will be helping Faha navigate the electrification process. Unknown to Fahaians, Christy also has a personal agenda in choosing to come to Faha post retirement.

The story comes to us from the first-person perspective of seventy-eight-year-old Noel, recounting his memories of those days retrospectively from six decades later.

Imagine that you are sitting with a benevolent old man who is nostalgic about his youthful years and wants to share his memories with you. He would have many fascinating anecdotes to tell about his life from six decades ago, when people spoke with each other directly instead of communicating through screens, when things we take for granted today such as electricity and telephones were non-existent, when Sunday mass was not just an obligation but a duty readily undertaken, when a community knew everyone and everything about everyone. With such brilliant stories and vibrant characters, you find yourself hooked by this charming raconteur. But after a point, despite his mesmerising narrative style, you might find yourself zoning out from the seemingly ceaseless and formless monologue. Until he says something so captivating that your attention immediately snaps back and you listen to him for a few minutes more. And then your attention starts wandering again… Repeat repeat repeat.

That’s what reading this book feels like. Noel is outstanding as a narrator, but although he has so many stories to tell, it feels like he has no story to tell at all! He himself admits that his storytelling “goes right ahead and round about at once.” That line is the perfect one-liner for how this book proceeds. So if you are the kind of reader who wants a strong plot or a fast-paced narrative, this novel might not work for you.

To be fair, I too am more of a plot reader than a prose reader. While I do like my books to be nicely descriptive, a book without a plot has a relatively lower chance of clicking with me. UNLESS I am forewarned about this. Because of my GR friend Rod, I went into this novel with full awareness of the plot being minimal. As such, I ended up liking it much better than I would have otherwise. I cannot even call this novel a character-driven read, because there’s hardly anything to be ‘driven’ ahead. But it sure is more character-focussed than plot-focussed.

Given the above, it goes without saying that the characters are well carved. Whether major or secondary, whether Noel or his family or the villagers or outsiders, we get to know almost every person intimately. This is even more remarkable considering how the book is written in Noel’s first-person POV and hence we see all other characters only through his eyes. I like how every character, whether whimsical or grandiose or shy, feels rooted in reality. Faha is also like a main character in this book. From its weather to its locales to its citizens and their beliefs, every aspect of Faha is detailed so well that the setting comes alive!

It’s not like the book has zero plot. You could call Faha’s journey towards electrification a plot. You could see Christy’s secret agenda as a plot. You could view Noel’s youthful experiences as a plot. But all of these plot points are not just meshed so intricately with each other that they aren’t visible in individuality, but they are also spread thinly across the novel, intermingled with many other character’s life stories and Noel’s observations. It takes every ounce of patience to wait for Noel to get to the point.

This book is not to be read for its amorphous storytelling but for its writing. And what lush writing it is!!! So atmospheric that all my senses were tantalised! I was fascinated by the vocabulary, the immersive descriptions, and the vivid metaphors. (What is it with Ireland and its literary writers!? They seem beyond compare in their mastery of the pen!) The book contains some of the most unusual and picturesque analogies I have ever read, and though quirky, they make so much sense! “Old Testament eyes, grave and grey and allowing not the slightest room for manoeuvre”, living with the “blocked artery of a story”, “the demisemiquavers of his eyebrows”, “a mattress as giving as a cream cracker”,… 🤩 But the most memorable parts of the writing are the quotable quotes, so full of wisdom and reflection. If I had had the physical copy, I might have highlighted multiple lines in almost every chapter.

The title holds a strong significance, and after completing the novel, I can only say that it not only suits the book well, but also adds a warm poignancy to Noel’s nostalgic narration, especially when he interrupts his reminiscences with a comparison of Faha and the world then and “now”.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 14 hours 27 mins, is narrated by Dermot Crowley. He is awesome! His voice suits septuagenarian Noel perfectly, and his emotions and slightly mischievous delivery style enhance the text. I strongly recommend the audio version, but perhaps, it would be better suited to those more attuned to audiobooks. The timeline is mostly straightforward, but the numerous characters and Noel’s meandering storytelling might be tricky for audio newbies to keep track of.

All in all, this was a surprisingly successful read. I rarely end up enjoying a plotless book so much, but going in prepared for a prose-dominant experience helped tremendously.

Recommended to readers who enjoy the journey and don’t bother about the destination. Better if you are fond of literary fiction and character-focussed storytelling.

3.75 stars. (Would have been higher for the writing, but I did miss the presence of a cohesive plot.)

This was a library read, chosen because I have the ARC of the sequel. Looking forward to continuing my sojourn in Faha!