Whatever Makes You Happy

1

If you re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Old children s song When I was ten years old, my friends and I would sneak out at night and meet in our building s service courtyard to play spy games and exchange secrets. The courtyard was forbidden: it was dangerous; it was ominous. Purple shadows draped its brick walls like pieces of cast-off clothing. It was where the building sorted its trash and where God only knew what dangers lurked. It scared me into a hollow, cold silence, but I went anyway because I was in love with Michael Farber. He lived two floors below me, and I would have eagerly followed him into the heartless depths of a raging fire.

One night, near the dumpster, Michael found a blue plastic gem, a dime-sized circle with facets, like the kind that came in the gum-ball machines at the front of Woolworth s and Lamston s.

A sapphire! whispered Julian Becker, who lived three floors above me and was not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

No, it s fake. It s only plastic, I told him.

What?

You re such a dweeb, Michael said, with a certainty that Julian made no effort to contradict.

Julian was the extra boy, and Michael was the one I adored, the one who made me willing to brave my fears and the purple shadows.

What are you going to do with it? Michael asked me, putting it in my hand.

Me? I asked, flustered.

You, he said.

You re giving it to me? I said.

You could make it into a necklace.

Tenderly, appraisingly, he touched the chain I wore on my neck.

Then came the bang of a heavy door and the shuffle of heavy footsteps.

Enemy spy! Julian whispered, exultant, and pushed Michael into the corner behind the dumpster that served as our usual shield.

Standing alone, I shivered and froze.

Come on, Sally! Michael hissed from his hiding place.

Quick, Sally! Julian whispered.

But I was too terrified to move.

Hide, Sally! Michael shouted, and then, with a courage that would continue to

Lisa Grunwald is the author of seven novels, including Time After Time, The Irresistible Henry House, and The Theory of Everything. Along with her husband, former Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, she edited the anthologies The Marriage Book, Women s Letters, and Letters of the Century. Grunwald is an occasional essayist and runs a side hustle called ProcrastinationArts, where she sells the other things she makes with pencils and paper. She lives in New York City.

"A snappy, pleasant novel content with its own wit."
-- The New York Observer

Grunwald tells the story with a wit. . . that never quite conceals the sting of wisdom just below. Perhaps it's no surprise that by the end of her well-turned and winning tale, we see and feel, as Farber does, that the pursuit of happiness is really nothing more than a recipe for misery.  
-- Pico Iyer, Time Magazine

From Aristotle to Edith Wharton, from laughter therapy to bedoom farce, this novel is a dictionary of delights.
-- Cathleen Medwick, O, the Oprah Magazine

"Sally's quest for personal fulfillment allows Grunwald to muse on the roots of happiness, mining sources as diverse as Aristotle and Charles Schulz to present a porvocative array of answers. Whatever Makes You Happy is a satisfying portrait of upper-middle-class angst. But it is also the tale of a woman's pursuit of a life philosophy--and through that search, readers may discover stepping stones for their own."
-- Alissa Quart, More Magazine

Grunwald's interweaving of scholarly quotations about happiness and excerpts of real-life research on the matter cleverly ground this novel, in which the main character is on the verge of spinning out of control as she searches for her own brand of happiness. Chock-full of penetrating and wry perceptions, this novel is recommended for all public libraries.
-- Library Journal

Attempting to fool everyone, but especially herself, into believing that she s only researching the pursuit of happiness, Sally Farber searches for that ephemeral quality in all sorts of droll places from the writings of Voltaire to the Laughter Institute to the bed of a famous artist. To no one s surprise, she learns that what does not lie within remains elusive without. And as Lisa Grunwald s odyssey of slapstick erudition unfolds, Sally seems stubbornly fated to remain without her heart s desire, until the very last page is turned. This book