Book Review: PERFECT HAPPINESS by Penelope Lively

Perfect Happiness by Penelope Lively
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Knowledge lurked, now, of unsampled depths; the world was shadowed in places where there had been untrammelled sunlight."

I had planned to write a "proper" Independence Day write-up on Nick Joaquin's collection of essays about Philippine heroes, but this book dropped into my lap and was too utterly compelling from the first page onwards that I was carried away by the music of Lively's prose. She is quickly becoming a favorite author, and I'm utterly amazed at this display of her breadth and scope. How different this second Lively is from my first (MOON TIGER)! And yet, in its core, I found the same penetrating insight and melodious turns of phrase, blessed with the gift of finding beauty in the ordinary.

"I have known what it is to be happy... Even what has gone is sustenance, to have been happy once is a privilege. I am not damned but blessed."

The book shows how lives are changed by loss. It's the chronicle of an inner geography: a man dies, and we are shown in intimate detail how his widow, sister, and daughter are able to forge on ahead. And I know that summary sounds dismal, but I promise you this book isn't! (Look at this passage: "I shall get through this... because I shall grit my teeth and put up with it. But I would rather go to sleep for six months.") Ha!

This is no depressing read, but neither is it a stereotypical happy-ever-after children's book. Lively is a fighter and an optimist, and so are her characters. She is able to portray grief with accuracy, but focuses more on the joyful love that inevitably gives birth to the pain of loss. She writes of days filled with silent screaming in the shadows, but also of moments full of light. Lively offers no easy, tidy answers, but possible horizons. Go do new things, meet new people, explore new places, she urges. For life goes on. And this grateful reader closed the book reluctantly, feeling that the novel was a beautiful gift.

There are many kinds of independence. And while no life is totally free from tears, this book reminds us that in the midst of sorrow, there is much beauty yet in living.

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