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Happy All the Time

Laurie Colwin

3.86 · Rating details · 3,228 ratings · 446 reviews

Guido and Vincent are childhood best friends—third cousins, really—living in Cambridge and dreaming about their futures. Guido plans to write poetry while Vincent feels confident he will win a Nobel prize for physics. When Guido spots Holly while exiting a museum, he can immediately sense that she will be difficult, quirky, and hard to live with. He loves her on sight. Vin ...more

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Paperback, 224 pages

Published May 16th 2000 by Harpperen (first published September 12th 1978)

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Apr 06, 2015 Glenn Sumi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the fourth book I’ve read by the wonderful writer Laurie Colwin, who died tragically young – she was only 48 years old – in 1992. Her work, although a little dated, deserves to be discovered by a new generation.

I see I’ve rated all of her books 4 stars. They’re uniformly modest and lovely, but perhaps not life-changing.

Her fictional subject (she also wrote bestselling books about food) tends to be romance in urban settings among middle- and upper-middle-class people. She cherishes happy This is the fourth book I’ve read by the wonderful writer Laurie Colwin, who died tragically young – she was only 48 years old – in 1992. Her work, although a little dated, deserves to be discovered by a new generation.

I see I’ve rated all of her books 4 stars. They’re uniformly modest and lovely, but perhaps not life-changing.

Her fictional subject (she also wrote bestselling books about food) tends to be romance in urban settings among middle- and upper-middle-class people. She cherishes happy endings – which perhaps is why the word “happy” figures not just in this book’s title but also in Family Happiness.

I don’t really know how to describe Happy All The Time. Third-cousins Guido Morris and Vincent Cardworthy find themselves drawn to two very different women, Guido to the laconic, spontaneous Holly Sturgis, Vincent to the pessimistic Misty Berkowitz, who’s radically unlike anyone else he’s ever dated.

The book chronicles the couples’ ups and occasional downs in a very idealized, and mostly white, New York City. Holly suddenly packs up and moves to France for months because she finds her life with Guido is becoming too predictable; Misty describes herself as a porcupine, with sharp quills on the outside to protect her soft and vulnerable belly.

There’s more than a touch of fantasy and wish-fulfilment in Colwin’s plots, but she’s sharply observant. If she were a painter, she wouldn’t work on a large canvas, she’d be a miniaturist, capturing shadow and light, the tilt of a head, a still life just so.

There are many laugh-out-loud moments, particularly involving some of the colourful characters on the book’s periphery: a no-fuss office assistant; a spacey academic who’s “completely interior” (i.e., she doesn’t talk much, she feels); an eccentric uncle who made money writing a novelty song; a narcissistic aunt who once starred on a soap opera. Colwin even makes a Greek florist into a memorable figure.

If you enjoy big plot twists and suspense, look elsewhere. Colwin’s books are like a freshly baked croissant served with a carafe of French press coffee on the terrace. Comforting. Delicious. Something to savour and contemplate for a little while. ...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Amanda rated it really liked it

Colwin's "project" in this, and the other works of hers I've read, seems to revolve around picking up the story of love where most novelists leave off: she's interested in what happy marriages and established friendships look like. The conflict she's primarily concerned with is the resistance people have to contentment, and their fear of its loss. Happily, the characters struggling with accepting happiness are usually married (literally or figuratively) to characters who have a talent for enjoyi ...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Joe Vallese rated it really liked it

My experience reading this novel was really strange. When I was a senior in high school, I read a short story called "An Old Fashioned Romance" by Colwin in my AP class. I remember being struck, and a little disappointed, by how bright and optimistic the story was - up to that point, I'd understood stories as ominous and never happy. Then I read her author bio and it said that she graduated from Bard in the 70s and, I of course, was going to attend Bard that summer. Long story short, I was alway ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Dana rated it it was amazing

This little novel is, by far, the happiest, most delightful little gem you will ever read. I originally read it in the late 1970's when it was written. I always remembered that I loved it, but had long forgotten the story and its characters. I requested that my library find a copy for me. Luckily, they rounded one up from several counties away! I am smiling like a fool, having just now finished it again. There is no other novel I have ever read, and I believe I have read thousands in 60+ years o This little novel is, by far, the happiest, most delightful little gem you will ever read. I originally read it in the late 1970's when it was written. I always remembered that I loved it, but had long forgotten the story and its characters. I requested that my library find a copy for me. Luckily, they rounded one up from several counties away! I am smiling like a fool, having just now finished it again. There is no other novel I have ever read, and I believe I have read thousands in 60+ years of life, (not that I was yet able to read 60 years ago) that has left me beaming like an idiot. Colwin, who sadly died years ago at a young age, was such a gifted writer. Her characters are so well drawn, so real, so lovable even with their flaws, that I wish I could be part of their inner circle and beautiful friendships.
Guido and Vincent, third cousins and best friends, are two good, decent, smart, witty guys who fall, in turn, for 2 quirky, resistant, but kindhearted women. Each couple finds their way to a good life together. The cousins and their wives are friends and share so much, but also hold back. Guido's lovely wife, Holly, finds the need to withdraw from time to time, whether to Paris to be alone for a few weeks, or to a monastery to regroup for a bit, before heading back to a busy life in NYC to embrace her married life once again. And Vincent, the son of wealthy New Englanders, has to be the nicest of them all. He pursues and wins the heart of the very reluctant Misty, a Jewish girl who was also raised with great comfort, but who seems to take on the weight of the world, worrying about things which might happen, but which never do. Through Vincent, Misty learns to trust in love and to be...well, HAPPY!
The couples, with some very interesting and funny cousins who come along to join the fray, delight in life as young adults in a world that is just now becoming a part of history. The mid-t0-late 1970's were modern days (relative to the length of civilization) and yet there were no cell phones, no texting, no internet. They left each other notes, used pay phones, and couldn't be so terribly connected all the time, which can be a downside, for sure, to relationships in society these days. They heated milk on the stove to add to coffee to warm it up, because there were no microwave ovens in every apartment in NYC the way there are today. There was talk of this tool called a "calculator" and of recycling and reusing sludge to power a lawn mover, which I thought was very modern for that era. But mostly, there is talk, and laughter, and love which embraces you and makes YOU feel loved. Find a copy of this book. Hang onto it for 30 years and then re-read it. I wish I had kept my original copy. I can still picture its cover and feel its smoothness, but I must have loaned it to someone decades ago and never got it back. Keep this little gem as the antidote to all that ails or saddens you! It deserves 10 stars. I am STILL beaming and feel like skipping around the room from the joy in my heart. Thanks to Laurie Colwin for leaving this treasure behind. The world lost a great writer with her death! ...more

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Nov 26, 2014 Suzy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: re-reads, favorite-authors, new-york-city

Pure delight! The story of two friends, Guido and Vinent, who live and work in New York City. They find love, marry (Holly and Misty, respectively) and experience the hopes, dreams, anxieties and challenges associated with moving into adulthood. That sounds sort of boring, but this book is anything but. As one reviewer said, this book takes up where most love stories leave off - at the settling in and finding contentment stage. Touching, quirky and funny, it made me happy!!

This is the second ti ...more

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Oct 14, 2019 Rodica rated it it was amazing

I love beautiful things. I love stories told stylishly. This is a charming, intelligent and superbly witty book about intelligent and stylish characters. I got it through Prime reading, but I’ll probably end up buying it just to make sure I have my own copy available, for whenever I feel like rereading it.

Loved it, pure and simple. First of all, Colwin has the gift or writing about serious deep stuff in a lighthearted manner. She is also a master at describing her characters without judging and ...more

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Mar 15, 2015 Tucker rated it really liked it

I’m so happy that this charming, insightful, and absolutely delightful novel has been reissued. Laurie Colwin was a brilliant writer and I only wish she’d had many more years and many more books.

Thank you to Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

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Aug 12, 2010 Angie rated it really liked it

Shelves: good-uns

Last month Old school librarian suggested I read HAPPY ALL THE TIME by Laurie Colwin. I had not heard of the book or the author before and was very interested to discover what was in store. Fortunately, my local library had a copy readily available. Originally published back in 1978, HAPPY ALL THE TIME was the third of Colwin's five novels. Along with a few short story and cooking collections, those novels made up the bulk of her writing. It seems strange now that I'd never heard of her before a Last month Old school librarian suggested I read HAPPY ALL THE TIME by Laurie Colwin. I had not heard of the book or the author before and was very interested to discover what was in store. Fortunately, my local library had a copy readily available. Originally published back in 1978, HAPPY ALL THE TIME was the third of Colwin's five novels. Along with a few short story and cooking collections, those novels made up the bulk of her writing. It seems strange now that I'd never heard of her before as her novels have none of them ever gone out of print and it appears she still has quite a large and devoted following. A fact I completely understand and that makes me quite happy now, having read this perfectly delightful novel. Thank goodness for others' book recommendations, for I am quite sure I would never have stumbled across this treat of a book on my own.

Guido Morris. Holly Sturgis. Vincent Cardworthy. Misty Berkowitz. These are the rather enchanting names of the four principal players in our little drama. Guido and Vincent have been cousins and best friends since as far back as either of them can remember. Gifted with both privilege and personality, talent and wit, the two men have somehow managed to make it past graduate school and into bona fide adulthood without ever forming permanent or lasting attachments with members of the opposite sex. But all of that is about to change when they walk past a young woman with black hair and a composed face, sitting on a bench, and Guido falls instantly and madly in love. But Holly is not looking for love and Guido finds himself in the unfamiliar agony of being in love with someone who appears all but indifferent to him. Meanwhile, Vincent is coming to terms with his scattered and perplexing love life the hard way. Unsure of how to change things, he walks into the office one day and meets Misty Berkowitz, a cantankerous young woman of Jewish extraction who loathes and distrusts everything Vincent represents. And--just like Guido--Vincent is gone in one fell swoop. But like the lovely Holly (even though the two women are night and day incarnate), Misty has no interest in being wooed. What are these two earnest young men to do in order to convince the loves of their lives that they are, in fact, meant for each other?

Readers, I was utterly charmed by this book. It is a slim, unassuming volume to be sure. But within its pages is true loveliness. HAPPY ALL THE TIME reads like Annie Hall and one of those old Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn confections had a lovechild. There was just no way I was escaping its spell. The emotions are high and fraught with meaning, the witty banter is sophisticated in the extreme, and the costumes are elegant and timeless. Here's one of my favorite interactions between the likable Vincent and the irascible Misty:

Misty woke abruptly and felt awful. She groped around for her glasses, couldn't find them, and sat very still, looking unfocused and bereft, as if she had awakened from a kind dream to find merciless and cruel reality waiting for her. Vincent thought he understood unhappiness, but he was not sure if this was it. He sat beside her and took her hand.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he said. "I can't bear to see you this way."

She shrugged her shoulders.

Vincent asked, "Does it help if I tell you I love you, or does it make it worse?"

She began to cry. It was the second time in two days, but its effect on Vincent was not dimmed by repetition.

"Okay," she said. "Here goes."

His heart seemed to stop. This was it, but what was it?

"It's not what you're thinking," said Misty, looking at his stricken face. "It's worse. You're stuck with me. This is your last chance to bail out, Vincent. I don't think we were made for each other. Maybe you were made for me, but I was made for Attila the Hun."

"Are you telling me that life with you will be a living hell?"

"I am giving you one last chance to go off and find some nicer girl," said Misty. "Someone who knows her way around a sailboat."

"That's a disgusting thing to say. Last week you gave me a very compelling analysis on the workings of my stunning intellect. Now I'm supposed to take my intellect off and go sailing?"

And besides that, there's the Jewish question," said Misty.

"Oh, that," said Vincent. "I don't notice either of us being religious. Besides, my Aunt Marcia is Jewish. She married Uncle Walter. She's everybody's favorite relative. What's the big deal?"

"Our backgrounds are different," said Misty.

"This is not worth discussing," said Vincent. "We've done very well up till now, and we'll continue to do well."

"I'm not like your other flames," said Misty. "I don't know anything about dog breeding."

"Yes, you do," said Vincent. "The night we were comparing eccentric relatives, you told me that your Aunt Harriet wanted to cross Welsh corgis and Doberman pinschers and get a vicious but barkless guard dog for sneak attacks. That will be quite sufficient. Throw in my Aunt Marcia and you can see that we are ideally suited."

Tears slid out of the corners of Misty's eyes. She put her arms around his neck.

"I'm just scared," she said. "That's all."

"That isn't all," said Vincent. "What are you scared of?"

"I don't know."

"What else don't you know?"

That's all," said Misty.

"I assume that means that you have given a good deal of analytical thought to your feelings about me."

"My feelings about you appear to transcend analysis."

"Wonderful," said Vincent. "What are they?"

"I just love you," she mumbled.

"Speak up, please," said Vincent.

"I said, I just love you. Isn't that banal?"

"What a relief," said Vincent, smiling.

Well? Don't you want to go and find this book right now? I love Vincent and Misty so much. All four of them are memorable and layered and funny and offbeat, but I ended up responding most of all to Misty. Must be that inherent awkwardness and the tendency to analyze the people around me in my head, rather than going up and talking to them that we share. Either way, Misty is a kindred spirit and I sat there rapt as she worked through her feelings and came to grips with the fact that she loved someone who appeared to be so wrong for her, someone who--deep down--she felt rather sure would up and walk away someday when he woke up and realized just who he'd married. In this book, it's not about what happens in the end, it's about how they each get there. And it's worth it, I tell you. It's light and lighthearted, told in elegant, if occasionally fussy prose, and it will lift your heart and leave you perfectly sated. ...more

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Aug 30, 2010 Pamela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

When I picked up my copy of Happy All the Time and saw the sad girl peeling pears on the cover, I was like, "Here we go. Time to delve into the depressing inner lives of searching young adults." Having just finished a few Lorrie Moore stories from Birds of America, I was sure that the title of Colwin's novel was ironic.

IT SURE ISN'T!

Two couples meet cute, quip, and live happily ever after. Seriously.

I'm not immune to a charming narrative like this. The conversational wit sparkles on the page w ...more

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Mar 14, 2013 John McAndrew rated it really liked it

It's been years since I read this book, but it has stayed with me all this time, and I'm thinking it may be time to re-read it. It's a story about couples who get along and are "happy all the time." Sounds boring, right? That's because our concept of a happy relationship is both one-dimensional and an utter fantasy. These folks argue, have problems and crises . . . and get through them together, with a baseline of respect and affection for each other. Not easy, not Disneyfied, but real. If recen ...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Amy rated it did not like it

Recommended to Amy by: Antof9

Shelves: library-book, decided-not-to-finish-it

While I could have finished this had I soldiered on, I gave myself permission to abandon it. Life is too short to sludge through books you don't enjoy.

I don't know if it was someone else's comment that this book reminded them of a mix between The Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany's or just the vagaries of my own mind, but I kept thinking Happy All the Time was set somewhere in the 1920's to 1940's time period. Then, as I was reading, a comment about computers or something would remind me it ...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Kim Fay rated it it was amazing

How is it that I have not reviewed this book before now? For many years, it was a tradition that for the first book of the new year, I would read "Happy All The Time." This story of two couples is so light-filled and nuanced and clever -- I simply take great pleasure in reading it and enjoy being reminded that life can be quite lovely, indeed. Laurie Colwin has a dry (and subtle wicked wit), which is what gives this novel its depth. Yes, the world portrayed in this book is sheltered, but sometim ...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Kathryn rated it really liked it

A thoughtful, surprising, genuine and touching story about four people who fall in love. Guido and Vincent are cousins and best friends. Guido falls for Holly and Vincent falls for Misty. So, not only is romantic love developing but the connected friendships need to develop, too, if they are going to be four pals rather than two friends and their awkwardly tolerated spouses.

What I appreciated about this story is that there are no huge disasters or tragedies. That doesn't mean that the character A thoughtful, surprising, genuine and touching story about four people who fall in love. Guido and Vincent are cousins and best friends. Guido falls for Holly and Vincent falls for Misty. So, not only is romantic love developing but the connected friendships need to develop, too, if they are going to be four pals rather than two friends and their awkwardly tolerated spouses.

What I appreciated about this story is that there are no huge disasters or tragedies. That doesn't mean that the characters are "happy all the time"--there is angst--worry and fear and doubt... but it's all pretty much self-imposed. And I think that rings so true to life--often times, we pin burdens on ourselves, sometimes unnecessarily, sometimes because we know that working through that will lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

***minor spoilers***
The message I took away from the story is: when you love someone, you have to allow them to love you back. You can't keep second-guessing, wondering *why* they love you, if you are good enough for them, if they will find someone they like better, etc. This is seen in the story of Vincent and Misty. Misty is the classic "glass is half empty" and waiting for something to go wrong; Vincent is an eternal optimist and floats through life with a smile. Misty worries that she is all wrong for Vincent (even though he clearly loves her) and she fears he will eventually want someone more like him. Another "message" in the story is that you cannot really define love, that if you try to, you'll miss the essence completely. This is seen in story of Guido and Holly; he loves her so much, but she is elusive to him in some ways--he sometimes can't understand her, wants to understand her, and fears that this lack of understanding is a flaw in their relationship; until he learns that he was trying to understand her from his own way of looking at things, rather than trying to see things through her eyes. And that he doesn't have to understand her perfectly in any sort of quantifiable terms in order to love her.

Ultimately, this book wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I wanted a cozy, snuggle-up-with-hot-chocolate sort of read. The sort of story where, from page one, you feel all snug and secure and know that there will be sunshine and radiance everywhere. Maybe I was just reading the story with a "Misty" view, rather than a "Vincent" one, because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and squish away a happy ending. But, even though I didn't get a breezy, musical-comedy PG Wodehouseian sort of comfort read, I am still very glad I read this. I appreciated the thoughtful look at humanity, at love and friendship, and at what it takes to live our life so that we can be "happy all the time" (or, at least, most of it!)
...more

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Jul 22, 2012 christa rated it really liked it

There are some writers who are good enough to disregard plot in favor of a collection of quirky characters slinging each other with cute conversation. See also: Laurie Colwin, whose 1978 novel Happy All the Time is simply the story of third cousins tip-toeing from bachelorhood to couplehood and the difficult targets who change everything they believe to be true about women. What, in theory, could reek of a banter-y rom-com with a “Gilmore Girls” preciousness is smart and lively and potentially s There are some writers who are good enough to disregard plot in favor of a collection of quirky characters slinging each other with cute conversation. See also: Laurie Colwin, whose 1978 novel Happy All the Time is simply the story of third cousins tip-toeing from bachelorhood to couplehood and the difficult targets who change everything they believe to be true about women. What, in theory, could reek of a banter-y rom-com with a “Gilmore Girls” preciousness is smart and lively and potentially something that might have inspired the writer Charles Baxter -- the last person I decided could write whatever the hell he wanted.

Guido is a romantic, tapped to run the family’s nonprofit arts organization. He meets Holly outside of a museum and goes gaga for her in the least subtle way, describing her for Vincent as though she was a piece from one of the collections inside. She doesn’t find this cute. They continue to cross paths and eventually she agrees to go out with him. Holly is light on emoting and poor Guido never really knows where he stands with her. When he asks her to marry him, she goes away for a week to remove herself from the situation and gain some perspective. Though she promises to return to him, he ends up wandering around sullen with a stained aura.

Vincent is slower to find a life partner and instead has a series of not-so serious relationships with unavailable women, hearty women, women who love horses. He meets Misty while working at a think tank: him in garbage, her in linguistics. Her only romantic experience has left her soul scabbed over and he is forced to take a friends first approach and woo her first slowly, then suddenly. Like Holly, she eventually cracks.

On the sidelines are a slew of caricatures including a super efficient secretary and a hippie, vibe-feeling fill-in secretary, uncles and aunts with colorful pasts, a vegetarian dancer, and another cousin who gives Misty a bit of a core shake.

Colwin’s strength is bursts of hilarious dialoge. When Vincent buys flowers for Misty, he says to the seller: “Give me something that looks like the thing they hang on prize-winning horses.” During another scene the crew is dining at a vegetarian-friendly restaurant and Vincent says, holding up a vegetable punctured with holes, “Do you eat this or did it fall off someone’s shoe?”

Storywise, you get something akin to watching Sims characters wander between home and work and dinner parties. It’s very light on conflict and there is a sense that all will end well. Instead of dips and valleys there are a series of speed bumps one’s tail bone would barely even register. Still, it feels so good to read it, even if it does trap your face in dopey grin mode. ...more

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Mar 31, 2018 Megan Tucker rated it liked it

This book stressed me out.

The writing is SO beautiful. The dialogue is delightful. The characters and relationships are fascinating, despite their privilege and superfluity.

But that's what stressed me out: the privilege and superfluity. While this book is gorgeous...it's a book for middle to upper class white people. The characters have no real hardships beyond figuring out how to be in love. I finished the final page, closed the book, and stated aloud in shock: Wait. They literally were happy. This book stressed me out.

The writing is SO beautiful. The dialogue is delightful. The characters and relationships are fascinating, despite their privilege and superfluity.

But that's what stressed me out: the privilege and superfluity. While this book is gorgeous...it's a book for middle to upper class white people. The characters have no real hardships beyond figuring out how to be in love. I finished the final page, closed the book, and stated aloud in shock: Wait. They literally were happy. The whole time.

I've since determined that's not strictly true. Each of the four struggles in their relationship...but the struggles are so privileged that to my pessimistic eyes I didn't consider them real struggles. They were the struggles of love - the struggles I myself managed to enjoy despite losing sleep and being too nervous to eat when I was dating. After some thought, I realized I may not be the standard; the struggles of love might be true difficulty to some. In this story, they just didn't bring any depth for me (or did they?).

When I finished the book and saw that they really were not going to encounter any deep conflicts, I exclaimed in consternation for days, "Genocide! Poverty! Racism! One of you is going to get cancer and die! You cannot be happy all the time! Life is not happy all the time!" The fact that I had just finished reading The Street by Ann Petry may or may not have made me extra critical; perhaps it was an unfair juxtaposition. That book is almost totally devoid of happiness. It presents life as a single black mother in 1940s Harlem under fluorescent lights for readers to consider. So to take up Happy All The Time, which I knew nothing about, resulted in quite the whiplash.

So I thought I hated it. After all, I don't like escapism. Life is hard, and I will not pretend it's not. I'll face the hard facts head on, dang it! What good is it to avoid the harsh realities! If you pretend they aren't there, then they'll just fester.

But then, here I am, weeks later, thinking over this book. I've discussed it with my book club. And I have enough feelings to write a review. I've been pondering: maybe I'm a Misty. Maybe I'm sitting here in my own life refusing to acknowledge all the good for worry that it is going to end in ruin. While I'd rather spend my time reading books that acknowledge harsh reality, perhaps a story that simply exists to be beautiful isn't as bad as I want to think. Maybe to relax and appreciate the good in my life doesn't mean I can't also mourn systemic racism.

So did I love it or hate it? I don't know. Depends on the moment.

...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Eileen rated it really liked it

If Laurie Colwin was actually her own image of Misty, then I'm sadder than ever that she's dead.

I can see people with a fierce desire for "plot" and "story" having a hard time with this, but the writing itself is so swift and good that I personally don't care. The point is not to complete some grand story; the point is that the story ("story") is continual and pervasive, happening and happening and happening. In some ways, this reads like a theatrical piece, with characters grouped into pairs or ...more

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Mar 20, 2014 Jason McKinney rated it it was ok

This is the book that Jane Austen would have written if she had lived in NYC in the 1970's. Having said that, if you had described it that way to me before I read it, I would have thought that I would love it. Not so much...

This reminded me a bit of When Harry Met Sally... but not nearly as entertaining. It's certainly well written, but there's just something about it that left me bored and really not interested in these characters. As someone else on GR put it, I felt like I really couldn't rel ...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Kathleen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I first read this book a few months after I had a stillborn baby and was struggling with depression and the grief. The title of the book drew me in because I was so desperately unhappy at the time. I loved this book and the fact of my introduction to Laurie Colwin. I devoured each of her books as they were published, including Home Cooking. My favorite is probably Shine On Bright And Dangerous Object. I remember specifically where I was when I learned she had died. I felt like I had just lost a ...more

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Mar 26, 2019 Trish rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I found the women in this novel to be awful, and there was nothing "happy" about it.

I will marry you, but never actually say "I love you" or any such drivel. But my hair is always perfectly trimmed, and I'm also an excellent cook.
And I will marry you, but I must warn you that tragedy befalls me at every corner. Life is terrible.

And they lived happily ever after?! ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american

Utterly brilliant; a joy from first page to last. What a genius Laurie Colwin was to write a book about four people falling in love and just being happy (no big dramas here) and to make that not only compelling but full of wisdom and wit. The comparisons to Jane Austen are both apt and wholly deserved.

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Jul 13, 2009 Shelley rated it it was amazing

This book is funny in a grown-up way. I can't decide if I should cheer or die of envy. ...more

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Feb 23, 2018 Molly Stawarz rated it it was amazing

The happiest little book I’ve read in a long time.

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Nov 22, 2019 Nichole rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york-new-york, love-and-romance

Only 2 stars for my first Laurie Colwin book

I opened Happy All the Time with a huge sense of expectancy. The late Laurie Colwin was acclaimed for her smart and quirky domestic fiction. I looked forward to her writing.

Laurie Colwin's phrases really captured the warm minutiae of family life, of life itself, and I enjoyed highlighting those passages. Her style was clever and eccentric. Witty. In spite of those positives, however, something vital was missing. The storytelling was dry and detached; ...more

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Jan 29, 2018 Melanie rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2018

This is a story about two friends - who also happen to be third cousins - and the women they marry. This was relatively enjoyable to read but I really think this book would be best as a book club pick. It lends itself to discussion about marriage and relationships and the ways we know and don't know the people we're closest to. I liked that this book was literary and still happy. I feel like much of the family/relationship-focused literary fiction that has come out in the past few years is based ...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Nancy McKibben rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: readers who love a smart novel written by a smart, generous writer

Recommended to Nancy by: after I read a book of her short stories, I sought out and read all her novels

Shelves: favorites, reviewed

Happy All the Time
By Laurie Colwin

I love Laurie Colwin. I suppose it’s more accurate to say that I love her books, but she is one of those authors whom you feel you know through her books, especially as she wrote several books of food essays as well as five novels and two books of short stories. Unhappily, she died in 1992 when she was only in her early forties, and the tributes written by her readers (you can find them on the web) show how greatly she is missed.

Happy All the Time begins like th Happy All the Time
By Laurie Colwin

I love Laurie Colwin. I suppose it’s more accurate to say that I love her books, but she is one of those authors whom you feel you know through her books, especially as she wrote several books of food essays as well as five novels and two books of short stories. Unhappily, she died in 1992 when she was only in her early forties, and the tributes written by her readers (you can find them on the web) show how greatly she is missed.

Happy All the Time begins like this:

“Guido Morris and Vincent Cardworthy were third cousins. No one remembered which Morris had married which Cardworthy, and no one cared except at large family gatherings when this topic was introduced and subjected to the benign opinions of all. Vincent and Guido had been friends since babyhood. They had been strolled together in the same pram and as boys were often brought together, either at the Cardworthy house in Petrie, Connecticut, or at the Morris’s in Boston to play marbles, climb trees, and set off cherry bombs in trash cans and mailboxes. As teenagers, they drank beer in hiding and practiced smoking Guido’s father’s cigars, which did not make them sick, but happy. As adults, they both loved a good cigar.”

Now in their late twenties, Guido and Vincent both find the loves of their lives in the pages of this novel, which is largely what the book is about - the unexpected complexities and delights of love. Perhaps I like these books because love is a marvel to the author and her characters - they are alternately baffled and elevated by their feelings, but they never fall into the clichés of the romance genre.

After making love to his eventual wife, Holly, for the first time, “Guido felt quite wiped out by sensation. Everything seemed uncommonly rich to him: the print on the sheets, the pattern on the quilt, Holly’s gleaming hair and earrings.” Holly herself “was an only child, an only grandchild, and she was nearly perfect. She had her own ways, Holly did. She decanted everything into glass and on her own long kitchen shelves were row upon row of jars containing soap, pencils, cookies, salt, tea, paper clips, and dried beans.”

Vincent’s love interest is quite different. Misty Berkowitz thinks of herself as a sea urchin: prickly on the outside to hide her soft, mushy interior, but she is unable to resist Vincent. “Now, as she walked slowly back to her office, the world looked askew. Intelligence had nothing to do with this at all. The jig was up. She was in love.”

This is such an enjoyable book to read. The characters are intelligent and quirky, they have interesting and unusual jobs and witty conversations, and they still feel like real people. The author loved life and I always finish her novels - and any of her writing - feeling both intellectually stimulated and emotionally mellowed.
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Oct 22, 2018 William rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This may not be a great book, but it is a great read. I know what's less than perfect about it (and I will get to that) but it was so much fun that I could not put it down.

It's interesting that the few goodreads.com reviews I checked wanted to compare this book to someone else's work or some other genre. But none made the same comparison. That's a tribute to the distinctiveness of Colwin's writing.

To me, this reads like a British comedy of manners, but in a very American way. (You don't find a l ...more

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Dec 28, 2010 KrisAnne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Man, I gotta start keeping track of where I even hear about the books I put on my "to-read" list. Who the heck recommended Laurie Colwin to me? I loved this. I mean, look, it's basically a book about two well-to-do educated white NY couples in maybe the early 70s, so if you feel like you've read enough books about people in that demographic you can skip this one. Once I got past that I just truly enjoyed how straightforward and funny the writing is, plus the four main characters are nicely compl ...more

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Sep 24, 2019 Taylor rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library, personal-or-list-recs, romance, classics, literature-literary-fiction

I feel almost embarrassed giving this book 5 stars. If someone asked me why I loved it so much and if they then read it based on my recommendation, they would think I am a fool. Well, at least that is certain: that I am a fool for matters of the heart.

How did I stumble upon Happy All the Time , you ask? Well, Ann Hood wrote Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food to which she likened Colwin's writing to something that is associated with comfort. Having finished this book -- my first venture ...more

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Jun 27, 2017 Adrienne rated it really liked it

This book about "modern" relationships has been hovering on the edge of my consciousness since 1978 and I'm really glad that I finally got around to reading it. It is a wonderful story about two unlikely couples and all the ways they have to navigate the perils of love and marriage in the latter half of the 20th century when gender roles were changing rapidly.

It is full of quotable passages and one of my favorites was this one (spoken by an extremely prickly person): "She sat reflecting on the ...more

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Oct 02, 2018 Nick Crowley rated it really liked it

Pleasant read with some laugh out loud funny moments.

I interpreted Happy All the Time as an illustration of how men struggled to communicate and deal with women as women gained financial, social, and cultural independence during the 1960s and 70s in the United States. The men in this book, well-meaning, intelligent though they were, still struggled to adapt to the changing mores brought on by the rising tide of feminism. Both Vincent and Guido agonize over their respective love interests. Neith ...more

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About Laurie Colwin

Laurie Colwin

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Laurie Colwin is the author of five novels: Happy All the Time, Family Happiness, Goodbye Without Leaving, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object, and A Big Storm Knocked It Over; three collections of short stories: Passion and Affect, Another Marvelous Thing, and The Lone Pilgrim; and two collections of essays: Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. She died in 1992.