Changes

|title=Something Like Happy

|author=John Burnside

|publisher=Vintage

|date=April 2014

|summary=A very solid story collection, all the richer for the mood of the title piece being reflected in so many fashions.

}}

The title story, which sets us off in a bravura fashion – utterly convincing female first-person narrative, measured tone through a balance of crafted vocabulary and the voice of a young working-class person – concerns two sisters, two brothers and a sweater. It makes you wonder if it might not be better to avoid love, but some people are something like happy. We meet a male hurting a female through love, leaving her to grasp on to something that might not be there for her happiness in the cleverly-titled sequel (I'm sure I'm right in thinking 'Slut's Hair' is the translation of a type of pasta's name, and you'll have to see why that's relevant). A peach Melba becomes a Proustian foodstuff; an academic finds their annual private routine broken; two young friends laying claim to the dangerous sands outside their coastal home find risk elsewhere.

There is a darkness here, and some people have found a little too much that was bleak, disengaging and clipped. I don't think the tone suffers at all, hence my mentioning it from the beginning. Even if some of the works are written to order – there are two visits to the Christmas tale category – you have the pleasure of the pieces all being very varied and utterly distinct, yet definitely squares of the same patchwork quilt. Quality may waver a little – a couple of instances of their being too much back-story and not enough in the current moment – but the collection is definitely one to relish. It's that aura that pervades across the pages from the title down – something like happiness being found in all tales despite the gloom it may have to cut through. I was certainly more than happy as a result.

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[[Category:General Fiction]]

[[Category:Literary Fiction]]