Douglas Kennedy has a way of capturing the tumult that is life - the swings between highs and lows, the drama, the staleness, and everything in between - and doing so in such a way that utterly captivates the reader. He does so this time while highlighting one of the darkest periods in American post-war history. While the post-WWII era is typically considered one of bucolic happiness, The Pursuit of Happiness explores the fleeting spirit that is happiness and the challenges faced by everyone during the very tumultuous McCarthy era.Mr. Kennedy uses a change in narrators to the maximum effect. The story starts out as Kate is attending the funeral of her mother. Her father passed a long time ago, and as the reader digs into the narrative, Kate is only just beginning to understand and accept how her life has changed now that she is an orphan, albeit an adult orphan with a child of her own. A reader is immediately drawn into Kate's likability. She has just gone through a very tough emotional experience and is still fragile. When Sara enters the scene, as an unknown in her family's past and possible threat, the reader immediately feels protective of Kate. Her unease, concern, fear, and anger becomes the reader's own emotions. Just as the reader gets comfortable and sympathizes with Kate, he switches to Sara telling her story. Gradually, a reader is drawn into dueling emotions as one cannot help but empathize with Kate while at the same time sympathizing with Sara as she shares her painful familial past. This allows the reader to continue to experience Kate's unseen reactions as one's own and drives home the sense of confusion, hurt, wonder, and pity at everything Sara shares.Mr. Kennedy specializes in addressing little-known or vaguely familiar periods in history and bringing them to life. The Pursuit of Happiness is no different. While taking the reader on an unparalleled emotional roller coaster, Mr. Kennedy includes the horrors inspired by Joseph McCarthy and the Un-American Activities Committee, the fear being named induced in people, what it meant to be blacklisted, and the lengths people were willing to go to avoid being blacklisted. Under Mr. Kennedy's pen, the McCarthyism scare is eerily reminiscent of today's war on terror and the all-encompassing Department of Homeland Security, and for that reason deserves to be studied in depth to ensure that Americans do not fall prey to the same mass hysteria that occurred in the late 1940s and early 1950s.The Pursuit of Happiness is one of those books that is completely captivating and thoroughly enjoyable throughout all 592 of its pages. In fact, a reader will not mind the length because the story is so well told. Sara, Eric, and Jack's stories become more than words on a page, as their characters have a sense of authenticity and reality that makes it easy for readers to believe that this is a work of non-fiction. His ability to understand his characters and allow readers to understand them just as well is only one of the perks of the novel. The others include understanding more of the hysteria that took over the country, the difficulties that befell women and homosexuals at this most conservative of periods, and a story that will affect a reader deeply. As this is the second novel of Mr. Kennedy's of which I have had the pleasure of reading, he has grown into one of my favorite modern-day authors, and I eagerly anticipate his next novel.Acknowledgements: Thank you to Atria Books for my review copy!
THE STORY:The story starts of with the death of Dorothy, Kate’s mother. We see Kate trying to come to terms with the death of a complicated woman whom she loved but never understood. It is only after her mother’s death that she catches a glimpse of the magnitude of the sadness and loneliness that overshadowed 40 years her mother’s life. She learns this through a manuscript written by Sara whose life was intricately entwined with that of Dorothy for 40 years. Dorothy married and lived with a man who did not love her and whom she did not love, not even from the first day of marriage. Sara loved a man she could not have but whom she loved at first sight and knew would be the only one she ever would. WHO'S WHO?Kate a 40 something year old divorcee raising a child on her own and trying to cope with life and the foreboding suspicion that she is a failure.Sarah is a writer around whom the story is told and an independent woman who loves the man who becomes her undoing.Eric, devoted bother and homosexual in the 30’ and 40’s.Jack Malone, husband to Dorothy, Father to Kate who in my opinion a spineless man responsible for a 40 year long catastrophy and the loss of two lives..Dorothy, a woman who made the choice to marry Jack Malone because of an accidental pregnancy and it cost her happiness to a very large degree.THIS WAS HOT....I cannot count the number of "MOMENTS" this book contains and each one is more gut wrenching than the last, that’s one of the things that keep the nail biting suspense going. There is one part that will remain with me forever, I was so disturbed there after by the pain felt by this woman I could not read further for a couple of days and didn’t think I would again. For the first time I really cried for a character.The entire book It feels like a life that’s been lived in its tragedies and triumphs and as a result you forget you’re reading a work of fiction.It is a multi layered work that takes you through the heteregenous nature of man. You realize that this book is a reflections of real people with real problems that the rest of the world remains is blissfully unaware of. That resonated with real life for me.NOT SO HOT:I felt that there were bits that went on a tad bit long with explanation but not long enough to tempt me to put the book down and they were very few. I wished he could have covered something about her brother and her ex-husband post her becoming a woman of means, mostly t make the ending more exciting. But perhaps after the rollercoaster of emotions we go through in almost 600 pages, he thought it better to let it go easy.OVERALL:When I read the last word I immediately though: WOW, so this is what life is........If not for knowing who the writer was, I would have sworn that this is the work of a female novelist, it almost seems impossible that a man should have such insight into and understanding of the female psyche and emotions. The Pursuit of Happiness is piece of genius. I believe if a novelist writes with the aim of moving their audience to feel joy, pain, fear, anxiety, heartache, sadness, triumph, and myriad of other emotions to their extreme, this is a book to look up and study. The imagery Kennedy creates is beyond magnificent, no words can adequately explain his gift with words. His book, Temptations made me fall in love with the English language, The Pursuit of Happiness made me fall in love with his creative genius. He is an author I am sure I will enjoy for decades to come.
What do You think about The Pursuit Of Happiness (2002)?
An excellent story set in the late 40s-50s of New York, told in the truly engaging voice of Sara Smythe as she reveals her one-night love at first sight encounter with military journalist Jack Malone and the changes in her life and her family. Kennedy has an amazing gift in creating remarkable female characters. The story does come down a bit when she reunites with Jack some time later in the story and her choice is somewhat surprising yet without it the rest of the book would not be. HUAC rears its ugly head as Sara's brother, Eric, a successful comedy writer, is forced to cooperate with their investigation. Lots of drama for Sara with a failing marriage ended by a miscarriage. The drama is sincere here and not overly melodramatic.
—Robert Starner
This is my 3rd Kennedy book and I'm glad it was much more like the first one I read ("Leaving the World"). I'm impressed, again, that the narrator of this book, like "Leaving," was a woman. Kennedy does a good job of using a woman's voice. I actually forgot that a man wrote it. Is that sexist? I don't know. I just know that he's a good storyteller. There always seems to be dark elements and tortured souls in his novels but not so much that you get depressed and want to give up reading. Instead, I find myself rooting for the characters. I have three more books of his to read (I'm sorry Borders closed, but I was totally happy for the sale on books AND that they carried Kennedy at all -- I don't see him on the Barnes & Noble shelves very often). I look forwarding to delving into those stories. (The second book of his that I read was "The Woman in the Fifth" and I was totally disappointed with it. The plot twist was lame and seemed beneath him, really.)
—Ann
Story-wise, this book was fine--not overwhelmingly great, but fine. The main character was a (usually) strong, independent female, which is always good. The writing was flowing enough that it didn't bog the story down, but it certainly left the reader without anything to interpret for ones' self. Overly descriptive of emotions and reactions and self-analysis by the main character--nothing about these characters emerges solely from their action or dialogue, everything is hashed out in the narrative. That got a little annoying after a while.Annoying writing aside, if you are looking for a story of romance and friendship that spans the 1940s to the turn of the century, with believable characters and a sense of history, you could do much worse.
—Galen Johnson
