In his first novel since the Man Booker Prize longlisted History of the Rain, Irish writer Niall Williams returns to western Ireland with a coming-of-age tale about the inexorable march of progress and the grip the past nevertheless maintains on the heart.
The villagers and the rain of rural Faha, County Clare, "had been married so long they no longer took notice of each other," but one spring in the late 1950s brings a confluence of events that will forever shape the life of Noel "Noe" Crowe. His father sends him from his home in Dublin to stay with his grandparents in Faha, hoping to straighten out the 17-year-old after he leaves the seminary. The rain--rather than coming on "the fine day, the bright day, and the day promised dry" as usual--suddenly stops. Most importantly for the tiny village, the Electricity Supply Board comes to town, bringing the promise of jobs, the joy and threat of modernization, and Christy McMahon, who hires Noe to assist him in signing up the Fahaeans for electrical service.
An older man with "the confidence of the storyteller when the story is still unpacked," Christy confides in Noe that he wanted this assignment because he carries a deep-seated regret. As a young man, he left a bride at the altar and never looked back. His desire to seek her forgiveness has led him to Faha where she, a widow, now lives. Over the course of the sunny season, Noe drinks more than his share of pints, has a calamitous accident and falls for all three of the village doctor's daughters. His adventures and misadventures in aiding Christy chase the shadows of his youth help Noe take his first shaky steps into adulthood.
Told by an almost 80-year-old Noe, the narrative pulses with an old man's grudging fondness for a younger self who was more foolish but also purer of heart. "Human beings are helpless when seeded with story," Noe muses matter-of-factly, and his memory is a richly sown field. He sketches a picture of Faha's lost past as an isolated but strong village of proud, practical people in sometimes humorous, sometimes moving side rambles. Expected standbys of the setting occasionally arise, including a surfeit of drinking, a lovable layabout and a dreamer with a penchant for love ballads; nonetheless, Williams achieves surprising depth in his portrayal of an unmoored young man trying to find his way despite a terrible loss. This Is Happiness is resplendent with metaphor. It speaks to the vital role friendship and a tight-knit community can play in strengthening the human spirit. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: Niall Williams returns to the setting of History of the Rain in this coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of electricity's arrival in rural Ireland.