Happiness by Heather Harpham (Epub)

Description

A shirt-grabbing love story that follows a one-of-a-kind family through twists of fate that require nearly unimaginable choices.

Happiness begins with a charming courtship between hopelessly attracted opposites: Heather, a world-roaming California girl, and Brian, an intellectual, homebody writer, kind and slyly funny but loath to leave his Upper West Side studio. Their magical interlude ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant – Brian is sure he loves her, only he doesn’t want kids. Heather returns to California to deliver their daughter alone, buoyed by family and friends. Mere hours after Gracie’s arrival, Heather’s bliss is interrupted when a nurse wakes her: “Get dressed. Your baby is in trouble.”

This is not how Heather had imagined new motherhood – alone, heartsick, an unexpectedly solo caretaker of a baby who smelled “like sliced apples and salted pretzels” but might be perilously ill. Brian reappears as Gracie’s condition grows dire; together, Heather and Brian have to decide what they are willing to risk to ensure their girl sees adulthood.

The grace and humor that ripple through Harpham’s writing transform the dross of heartbreak and parental fears into a clear-eyed, warm-hearted view of the world. Profoundly moving and subtly written, Happiness radiates in many directions – new, romantic love; gratitude for a beautiful, inscrutable world; deep, abiding friendship; the passion a parent has for a child; and the many unlikely ways to build a family. Ultimately, it’s a story about love and happiness in their many crooked configurations.

User’s Reviews

Heather Harpham has written six solo plays, including Happiness and BURNING which toured nationally. Her fiction, essays and reviews have appeared in MORE Magazine and Water~Stone Review. Harpham is the recipient of the Brenda Ueland Prose Prize, a Marin Arts Council Independent Artist Grant and a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and SUNY Purchase and lives along the Hudson River with her family.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I liked his memoir. It is the story of a relationship, a birth, a serious illness, and a long medical battle. I must say that I am a man and a parent, and enjoy books about young families, but a good amount of this is about the author’s relationship with the father of the child (a man who did not want a child and did not meet his daughter for a long time). I did feel that I was intruding on a woman-to-woman or mother-to-mother dialogue at times, but the author is a talented writer, and I liked that way she told everyday stories. I could also empathize with the stress of having a sick child. With most memoirs, the narrator seems perfect, as she tells the story from her own perspective (and most people think they were/are right). Harpham, though, is a refreshing exception. She often talks of her reactions and interactions where it is clear she was not right, but it is an honest portrayal of how she felt at the time. She and the father of her child, and the children in this book, really come alive as individuals. I read the audiobook, and the author narrates this. She is a professional theater person, and her reading is clear and animated, but it is read so slowly at times, and overly enunciated. It sometimes felt that another person was reading her book rather than the author telling her own story. I would recommend the written book. Overall, I enjoyed this heartfelt memoir.

⭐ This book was heart-wrenching, heartfelt, funny, and honest. There were times when I didn’t particularly like the author but felt that she was unbelievably honest about herself. So many parents struggle with maintaining their relationship when caring for a sick child. Many struggle with having a second child for a variety of reasons. And add to these factors the fact that Heather and Brian did not even agree on having children. I found some of the dialogue with the children to be mature for a three-year-old but the author claims that she did not use children’s dialogue unless she had written it down at the time. While I struggled with my feelings about Heather, I was engaged in their story through most of the book and grateful that she did not sugarcoat her behavior. Well done.

⭐ A parent’s worst nightmare – walking through the hell of medical uncertainty to bring your sick baby back to health – is told with poignancy, humor and clarity. I was surprised to find myself laughing or crying, even when sitting in the middle of puzzled strangers. Heather Harpham holds onto your feelings and carries you on her relentless and, gratefully, victorious journey, and you are far too enthralled with every step to let her go.

⭐ A fine reminder that there is more that unites us than divides us. I began this book with my book club, thinking I wouldn’t be able to relate to much of it . How could I? My two children are and always have been healthy. I’ve never endured anything like what the author has. Not even with siblings, or parents. But I was so wrong. There is so much in this book that is so resonant. Parenting is parenting, and we never know what challenges we’ll be faced with. This beautifully written book is a glimpse of life – sometimes hard, sometimes beautiful, always real – lived by one woman, as spectacularly imperfect as any of us, and her family. I highly recommend this book!

⭐ Beautifully written memoir of a family dealing with a child who has a life-threatening illness. How they manage the complexities of her medical journey, how they define themselves as a family, how they proceed through the nightmare of her treatment, is so captivating that I couldn’t put this book down. I savored each page! There is also the backstory of their various loving communities who support them as they maneuver decisions that could either save or risk their small daughter. I can’t say anough how beautifully written this is. What sounds like it might break your heart actually expands it!

⭐ I liked learning about the children’s hospital in Durham, NC in this well-written memoir. It is an honest look at all that parents experience when a child is born with a birth defect. Thank God that this was something that could be corrected, though it entailed a painful process. It kept my attention, and I appreciate the author’s honesty and transparency. Indeed, it is well written, and I am glad to know what has happened since the experiences in the memoir in the follow-up note at the end.

⭐ The whimsical title of the book, full of allusions to the illusions we hold about marriage, alone is worth the price of the book. From the first sentence the reader is pulled into the heartbreak of an eagerly anticipated birth of the author’s first child who emerges into life with a life-threatening blood disorder. The at this point single mother not only manages to corral a support system to save her child but also to weave bonds of connection between the child and its reluctant father. Out of fierce love for their child, the parents have another child in the hope that it might lead to a successful bone marrow transplant. It does. What I carried away from this book is how the love for this endangered child spreads out over the little band that constitutes the family and everyone else who becomes involved, doctors, nurses and other children similarly threatened. A family that is grounded by virtue of its respond to a mortal challenge A truly mind-altering read.

⭐ Heather Harphan writes a beautiful page-turner filled with humor and pathos. Happiness:A Memoir goes to the heart of life with a chronically ill and absolutely delightful child. Their journey through sudden hospital stays, scary but real solutions, and a family adapting to whatever needs to come next is filled with insightful and funny observations of her two young children. This book is touching, hopeful, and funny.

⭐ I got the impression the author tricked her boyfriend into having children when she knew he did not want them. Also, I am in support of a modest lifestyle, but do not critique others on how they spend their money after exhibiting such a poor work ethic.In this book, I feel it is necessary to get behind and support the main character in order to appreciate it. I could not.

⭐ Heather Harpham takes you on a journey that you would never choose to take willingly. But, allow her to lead you on because you will be astonished, saddened, laugh out loud, and ultimately find that you can relate to the seemingly un-relatable topic of a mother’s deep deep love for a very sick daughter. I am so glad to have found her story. You will be too.

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