The Sad Truth about Happiness, (Paperback)

from shelleyraec

What struck me first about this novel is how very formal the language is - reading the first few pages I thought it must be taking place in say the 30's or 40's. the writing remained very formal - gorgeously descriptive though."The woman's voice was high and very clear and had a warble in it, lik...

from LynnB

This is the story of Maggie, who takes a magazine quiz and answers "Are you happy?" with "no". I had to suspend my disbelief while reading about Maggie and her roommate who had designed the test (Rebecca) puzzling over the results: that Maggie would die in about 3 months and that changing the "no...

from Aleesa

The title caught my eye and the finely-crafted prose of the first few pages hooked me. The author has a very fine eye for detail and writes it well. The story started off strong (I could especially relate to the main character's longing for a romantic partner). However, Giardini seems to have got...

from dihiba

This book was quite readable - it did keep my attention until the end. It has some serious flaws though - did Giardini do her own editing? (Spoiler alert) There is one character who is called by the wrong name and the narrator's references to Gian Luigi's children shift - apparently he had a son ...

from julie10reads

I know that I always complain about books that are written in a colloquial style. Now I find myself complaining about the emphatically literary style of The Sad Truth About Happiness by Anne Giardini. Less than halfway through my reading, I felt as though I would be required to hand in a paper on...