false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171447679m/99576.jpg 99576 2 Although <I>The Half-Life of Happiness</I> begins "For no reason he could think of, Mike felt terrific," the reader is not reassured. The details accrue with disturbing precision during Mike's walk across Charlottesville's Courthouse Square: clear spring sky, soft breeze, pretty tax specialist, bouncy tap-dance teacher, languorous bookstore clerk, charmingly stuttering woman doctor. Then we glimpse the house he shares with his wife and their two daughters: ramshackle, cluttered, incomplete--"a series of partly assembled kits for family happiness." Clearly, this is one marriage--one family--with trouble in its future. Of course, without trouble, there'd be no novel. Only in this case, the family is so <I>fun</I>, their circle of bright, articulate, bohemian friends so very <I>winning</I>, that watching them careen toward disaster has the same nasty inevitability as a horror movie: one wants to throw up a hand and say, "Wait! Don't go see what was making that noise upstairs!" <P> When trouble arrives, it takes the shape of Bonnie, the new girlfriend of one of their gang. Flirtatious and manipulative, with thin, "gobbly" lips, Bonnie seduces not Mike, surprisingly, but his caustically funny filmmaker wife, Joss. Watching his marriage crumble around him, Mike lets himself be persuaded to enter a congressional race that turns into a humiliating farce, while the couple's two daughters observe their parents' plight with unforgiving clarity. The author of the National Book Award-winning <I>Spartina</I>, Casey brings new energy to what could be a familiar story, and his take on the domestic novel, late 1970s style, is a masterpiece of finely drawn characters and meticulous detail. 96000 1998 The Half-life of Happiness total:35|5:4|4:16|3:7|2:6|1:2| 35 119 60 4 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Mar 15 08:15:20 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 15 08:21:05 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 25 14:47:45 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 25 15:53:48 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Aug 03 17:27:36 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 17:46:54 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Apr 10 15:55:43 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 10 15:56:15 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Fri Oct 09 19:43:17 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 19:43:17 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 22:19:01 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 22:19:56 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jul 29 12:44:35 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 12:44:35 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1984 Sun Jul 19 20:45:49 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 20:45:58 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jul 05 14:28:12 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 14:28:12 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jun 21 13:07:09 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 13:07:09 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Apr 25 05:43:16 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 21:49:47 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Apr 20 10:27:09 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 20 10:27:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 05 16:21:28 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 16:21:35 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Mar 04 00:23:58 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 00:23:58 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue Feb 24 06:04:57 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 06:04:57 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Feb 02 18:18:17 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 18:18:17 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Feb 01 08:33:05 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 08:33:05 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Jan 31 18:48:52 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 18:48:52 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jan 25 03:21:42 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 03:21:42 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jan 19 08:20:15 -0800 2009 Tue Jul 21 12:24:55 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=99576