This might sound horrible, but partway through the book, I thought, "I've read this before." Then I could never quite be 100 percent sure I had. I think that's a strong commentary on just how good this book was. I will say, however, that on second reading (and I am pretty sure I did read this once before), I got more out of the book -- the deeper issues of very shallow characters, involving the dynamics of friendships and how they are perceived by each other and ourselves. Having just gone through a "friendship drama" in the past year, perhaps it resonated a little more, the things we do in order to survive the pecking orders of friendships as adults vs. when we were in middle school. Oh I wish this book were a better book, because there SHOULD be a really great novel about the dynamic of a toxic female friendship, and its weird co-dependent push/pull. So far the closest that I've found is Christina Schwarz's ALL IS VANITY, which no one but me seemed to like. But that's okay. That's actually one of the reasons I braved the grim Goodreads rating here, because I have liked books about this in the past that everyone else has hated, books with review after review that reads "These characters are so UNLIKEABLE." Ha! I said. I don't need characters to be likeable in order to enjoy them--sometimes it's fun to hate everybody, am I right?" I didn't think that I had the bone in my body that prevented me from liking a book because a character didn't behave the way I wanted. Then I read I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU. And now I know that I do own judgypants, and that they are quite comfortable. I like to imagine that they look like Pajama Jeans. It's a quick read. I read most of it on the subway, and often I had to catch myself before I turned to the stranger next to me and ask them to please remove their headphones so we could commiserate about how this Wendy woman was the worst. Like, the absolute worst. Actually, maybe a sociopath. Pretty sure the point Wendy and I officially broke up was when her husband's father was in a car accident that left him in a coma, and the response we got from her was relief that she wouldn't have to go up to be with the family and how this gave her a chance to snoop on his computer to see if he was really writing the screenplay that he had taken a year off of work to complete. And that was before she actively started lashing out at anyone.Even that could have still been okay, though. The thing that ultimately sank the book for me was that I never got the impression that Wendy was supposed to be portrayed as anything other than a normal lady with a sinking friendship. I admire authors who aren't afraid to explore the jealousies and resentments that can seep into long-term relationships, but there was never a point in this book where I felt like Wendy and Daphne's relationship was un-poisoned. There never even came a point in the book where I felt like any of the female friendships were un-poisoned. After reading this book, I might be afraid to befriend anyone in Brooklyn, honestly. (I also thought it was strange that we never got Daphne's point of view--it seems like a conceit that begs for a dual narrator, and Wendy didn't make good enough company to pull it off solo; I constantly wondered what Daphne was thinking about Wendy, and would have liked that more than the small twist that being out of her head delivered at the end.) So a swing and a miss here, unfortunately, although it will probably make you feel pretty great about your own friendships, marriages, internal thoughts, non-demonic soul, etc.
What do You think about I'm So Happy For You (2009)?
Well written but not compelling. The subject is kind of cliche for my taste, but well written.
—Nicholas
Horrible. Seriously awful. The main character is wretched and I couldn't get past that.
—sml
