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Stories
by Lori Ostlund
Book Reviewed by:Nine exquisite stories that explore class, desire, identity, and the specter of violence that looms daily over women and the LGBTQ+ community.
An aspiring veterinarian survives a plane crash and starts life over in California. A woman mourns the loss of her childhood friend's innocence and rethinks justice. A queer teacher's sense of safety in the classroom is destroyed. With settings ranging from small-town Minnesota to New Mexico, from bars and bedrooms to a furniture store and a community college, Are You Happy? casts a spotlight on people who try—and often fail—to make peace with their pasts while navigating their present relationships and notions of self. In prose that is evocative and restrained, unpredictable and masterful, Lori Ostlund offers a darkly humorous and compassionate examination of America's preoccupation with loneliness, happiness, guns, and violence.
Several stories center around family, highlighting complicated dynamics and dysfunction, including "The Gap Year," "Aaron Englund and the Great Great," "Just Another Family," and "Are You Happy?" Some are stronger than others in evoking emotion. "The Gap Year," unique in its exploration of tragedy and loss, showcases how valuable and essential a loving and understanding partnership is, as it can carry you through unimaginable heartbreak. "Clear as Cake" and "The Stalker" give insight into the sometimes harsh realities of writing workshops. "The Peeping Toms" and "The Stalker" are unsettling in their stark portrayal of the danger men pose to women, the lack of credibility given to women when they feel their safety is in jeopardy, and the toll this takes...continued
Full Review
(987 words)
(Reviewed by Letitia Asare).
Several stories in Lori Ostlund's Are You Happy? follow characters who are either teachers or students in writing workshops. Writing workshops are intended to help students strengthen their writing process through guidance and feedback from professionals and within a community. Outsiders don't always get much insight into what these classes are like and how it feels to be a part of them. As seen in Ostlund's stories, these spaces can draw an array of personalities and create emotional experiences for those involved.
In "Clear As Cake," a class consists of 16 students who meet every Tuesday: "It felt like Thanksgiving the first night, all of us too close together and filled with dread." Students sharing their writing with a group...
If you liked Are You Happy?, try these:
by Claire Keegan
Published 2023
From Booker Prize Finalist and bestselling author of "pitch perfect" (Boston Globe) Small Things Like These, comes a triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men.
by Manuel Munoz
Published 2022
Shimmering stories set in California's Central Valley, the first book in a decade from a virtuoso story writer.
Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things
Are You Happy? is bright, swift, and heartbreakingly direct in its portrayal of how home can sometimes leave a lingering bruise. Seriously, how does she do it?! Lori Ostlund is funny and wry; her work cuts to the quick. Every story I read made me feel deeply known. I've long been a fan of hers and this book does not disappoint. A short story collection that is truly all hits, no misses.
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