The Half-Life of Happiness

by John Casey

From the winner of the 1989 National Book Award (for Spartina), a major new novel--wise, sad, and richly comic--about the meltdown of a marriage against the backdrop of a gloriously awful congressional campaign. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1978: Mike is a successful forty-something lawyer, a onetime congressional staffer who's had it with Washington; Joss, his wife, is a filmmaker. They're Virginia liberals with a clan of close-knit friends--a bright, edgy, flirty, games-playing group, spinning like a Catherine wheel around Mike and Joss. But the sparks that fly between the two are getting hotter and more dangerous, as Joss' restlessness turns to impatience and then anger. When one of the group introduces them all to the woman he wants to marry, things suddenly explode--this new arrival and Joss fall passionately in love, and their whole world careens out of control.

What ensues is tragicomedy, as Mike tries to allay his rage and misery by letting himself get sucked into a trial run for a seat in Congress. He wants to be a hero to someone; instead he becomes the unwitting star of a political farce. Meantime, Joss is struggling with her new life, and their two young daughters (who form a lovingly unmerciful Greek chorus commenting on the action) have to navigate a turmoil in which one parent is a public joke and the other a private scandal. Rarely has the undoing of love been chronicled with such large-hearted humanity.

Genres: Fiction

513 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John Dudley Casey was an American novelist and translator. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1989 for Spartina.

Reviews

[Sana Abdulla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Failed to engage. Boring, slow paced, just don't.

[Kevin Trudo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There seems to be a current of suspicion around this book. Perhaps it's of misogyny; perhaps it's that the characters are a bit too ideal, too intelligent. That the book lacks a plot. The reviews I'm seeing are hesitant to either damn or praise it. I loved it.

It's not entirely realistic. I certainly don't know people like this in their conversations or their idealized self awareness and awareness of others. Most poignant is all of the character's ability to see the lack of self awareness in the father (Mike) and to inscribe meaning on him. I'm not sure these people exist. But they don't need to. The book functions more like a map for me. These characters aren't scale models. They don't reduce to something believable but they do offer some birds eye view of ourselves.

And maybe it is too masculine and even too much a caricature of that masculinity but, as a man, I see an awful lot of myself as Mike struggles to figure out a place in this world. The cartooonish masculine tacitness is there, though it seems to intimate that there is a painful thing in that and an arrogance in remaining that way: quiet in pain, removed, long struggling and well suited for the burdon. This definition of being a man is there and it bears the moral that a maturity is reached as we give up the idea of ourselves as incredibly special. As we stop being the center of the world we become something better. It's a struggle for me, for sure.

The prose is great. Casey is a focused and intense writer. All the middle aged angst and drifting without compass is painful and bleak, but - again - instructional. I think it penetrates and makes a reader uncomfortable. If it's misogynistic, it may be indicting our own lingering misogyny. If these people are shallow or merely apt narrators of an internal life it may be an accusation of our own poverty or emotional reflex to describe as a means to hide from life.

If the relationships are aimed badly and doomed by the self centered ness of the characters maybe this is some painful reflection.

I found myself oddly moved and looking forward to revisiting. Better braced for confronting myself, I hope.

[Melissa Schraeder · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason I continued to read this book beyond the first chapter is because I used to live in Charlottesville (the setting of the book) and had a certain nostalgia for the place. I found the characters shallow and irritating. The plot was so slow moving that it would sometimes put me to sleep. I did, however, manage to read all 513 pages and felt that the final chapter would have made a great short story.

[Kate Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just no. I checked this book out because "Evening," a book I love, had a recommendation for it. It's long, it doesn't have much of a plot and it's not very interesting. Mr. Casey can write, but just no. NO. I never would have thought that a book about a marriage destroyed by a lesbian affair could be so boring. Just. No.

[Jen]

I've been reading this book for years if that gives you any indication of what I think about it. . . .

[Chris Beal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book grew on me. At first, it felt sprawling, unfocused. But in the end, it did hang together.

The story starts out from the third person close point of view of Mike. Gradually, the point of view of the eldest of his two daughters is introduced, who grows up during the time that passes in the story.

In some ways it's quirky. For example, even though in real life we often know two people with the same first name, novelists usually make it a point to use a different name for each character to avoid confusion. But in this book, there are two women named Bonnie, and the other characters refer to them as Bonnie I and Bonnie II. It's as though Casey were saying, "This is how life is, so I'm going to be faithful to that."

The lack of focus may also be another choice made to increase verisimilitude. "That's what life is," Casey seems to say. 'We don't know what we are doing or why."

There are two simultaneous plots: Mike's marriage is breaking up, and he is at the same time asked by the local Democratic Party to run for Congress. For me, the run for Congress is too drawn out, I think Casey's points about how politics and personal dynamics interact could be made more succinctly.

While Mike is intimately involved, his daughter comments on the events as she experienced them at the time -- although she seems wiser and more observant than a child would usually be. But taking the long view of life, as this book does, also allows compassion and understanding. We are all often foolish but can be endearing as the same time.

[Anne Cotton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much angst and it is tough to like a book when you don't like the characters. Well I liked Joss' grandmother. Got half way through it. I don't have the patience any more to slog through books just because other people like them or, in this case, because I liked the first two books of his. I got to a point when I thought we were getting put on and that is not a good thing.

[Stephen Raguskus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this since I absolutely loved Spartina and think that Casey is a great writer. There were some entertaining scenes and some beautiful passages, but I found the story flat and the characters annoying. It wasn't a horrible book, but was a slog to get through the 500 pages.

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Casey is a gifted writer. The Half-Life of Happiness is a portrait of a family (with some friends thrown in for good measure), and all of the characters are nuanced and interesting. As the title suggests, the relationships are tested by external and internal forces. Casey is spot-on in his rendering of a marriage. He also gets the local color (Charlottesville and the surrounding area) right. Similarly, the Virginia political scene is familiar. And, he knits words beautifully:

"For someone who was no longer a practicing Catholic, Mike spent a lot of time spinning Jesuit spiderwebs."

"The whole house was a series of partly assembled kits for family happiness. The house, like their marriage, was a place for storing years that weren't ever quite what was planned but which he believed might still be made whole by someone turning up with the missing piece."

"He believed that marriage too had an invisible soul that existed independent of Joss and him. He thought that most problems could be solved by waiting, that there was a natural stabilizing grace which would sooner or later reach them."

"In her own calm moods she was very acute about the subtle tyrannies of marriage -- the ones she was subject to and, to an extent, the ones she inflicted."

"At that time she was trying to gather the goodness to herself, to withdraw it from the marriage bank."

"He could go into a stonewall of reasonableness."

"I'd always thought that beauty was another sacrament. Another outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace -- the sacrament of the inward and invisible splendor of everything."

"Was this part of a general principle of discourse -- intimate stories are better when told leaning back rather than leaning forward?"

There's pathos here, but a lot of humor, too.

Mike and Joss' daughters take over the storytelling at times. They provide a devastating and compassionate view of family life, moving rather freely back and forth in time. It takes getting used to. The last 40 pages of the novel are an epilogue, told in the form of an extended conversation between the sisters. It doesn't add value to the story. I'd have stopped on page 469, where my attention began to wander.

[Heidi Thorsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book mainly out of curiosity since it is set in a town I've lived in for many years (Charlottesville, VA). It took me longer than usual to finish, since it wasn't a page-turner. It's more about the characters. But the characters are likable, interesting, and there are just the right number. Few enough that it was easy to keep track of everyone, but many enough that if you didn't care for one, it wouldn't be long until the story moved on to someone else. The author did capture the vibe of the town accurately-- it's all about settling into the lifestyle, the truly ambitious generally wind up just passing through and making their mark elsewhere.

The book deals with some adult themes, so I'm not sure I'd recommend it for younger teens, although the language is mild and the sex scenes are not particularly graphic. The overall story centers on one family as they go through life, the main characters being the husband, a lawyer, the wife, a filmmaker, their two girls (who are adults by the end of the book), and a large assortment of friends and associates, and some messy relationships that get all wound up and tangled together within the group.

[craige · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason not many women like this book (according to the reviews on Amazon). And my mother, who usually likes almost all the same books I do, did not like it either. She chalked it up to being at different times in our lives and she said maybe she would have liked it in her late 20s, too. Granted, it's been a good 5 years since I read this, so I don't remember too specifically the story. I just thought the chararacters were very real and I didn't particularly like any of them, but I still sympathized with them, if that makes any sense. I guess I just really like John Casey's style, even if he is a bit of a chauvinist. And if he is (it didn't strike me while I was reading the book that he was), he's still a great writer.

[Christi · Rating 3 out of 5]

To some extent, this was an enjoyable read, but it seemed to drag on a little. The characters were engaging, but I did not find the plotline to be wonderful. It was depressing how the parents (in their own ways) neglected their two daughters.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the character development but the story line wasn't very interesting. It was well written enough to keep me engaged.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a while to get in the flow of the story. There are two narrators - the father and the daughter. Once I found my rhythm, it went well and was enjoyable.

[Hollis Fishelson-holstine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book (re-read in early 2012 - didn't love as much)

[Elizabeth Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this 10 or 15 years ago and still think about it sometimes. It's good.