This is Happiness by Niall Williams

This is Happiness by Niall Williams is a magnificent novel and a perfect book for pandemic reading. Williams’ narrative transports us to a simpler and more tranquil time. He tenderly captures the lives of people living in the small village of Faha in western Ireland. The story takes place in the 1950s, just as the parish is going to receive electricity. Williams' book is one of the most meaningful I’ve read this year. You can feel yourself on the western coast of Ireland looking up at the stars. “Faha was where, when darkness fell, it fell absolutely, and when you went outside the wind sometimes drew apart the clouds and you stood in the revelation of so many stars you could not credit the wonder and felt smaller in body as your soul felt enormous.” 

 

The book is narrated by Noel (Noe) Crowe, as he recalls the year he lived with his grandparents in Faha. Noe is decades older now, but he was seventeen then when workers erected poles that would carry electricity to the village. One electric worker named Christy McMahon had lived with Noe and his grandparents while working on the electrification. Christy specifically sought this assignment. Five decades ago, he had left his bride, Annie Mooney, at the altar on the day they were to be married. Christy felt haunted by his abandonment and hoped Annie would forgive him. He told Noe that he had loved her, but he became afraid his love “would swallow me up.” So at sixty years old, Christy had returned to Faha time to right the mistake he made. 

 

The time Christy and Noe spent had a profound effect on Noe’s understanding of the complexity of human emotions. Christy had told the young Noe, “Some of the things you do when you’re young are unforgivable to you when you’re old.” And Noe concluded from watching Christy wrestle with his choice of fifty years ago that “an older person must accommodate the younger one inside them.” 

 

In lyrical language, Williams describes the presence of music, the ubiquity of rain, and the various religious perspectives of the Faha villagers. He illuminates the power of storytelling to pass the time and dissolve the darkness, especially in the days before electricity. Quirky and earnest characters grace the pages. On one level, the book might be perceived as a tale with sparse action, but it is an intricate exploration of universal emotional themes. The book is nostalgic without being maudlin, insightful without being moralistic. This is Happiness is compassionate and profound. It is an ode to the miracle and mystery of being alive. The village of pre-electricity Faha no longer exists, but thanks to Williams' beautiful prose and enchanting storytelling skills, this time and place live on.