Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Kim has written a page-turning mystery, laced with a stellar representation of family dynamics, buoyed by the voice of an utterly fantastic and realistic narrator, and blending a plot-driven narrative with substantial character-driven growth and development.
When it is discovered that Mia's father has gone missing, her family's incredible search for any clue to his whereabouts has them re-examining everything they thought they knew about him — and each other. Using twenty-year-old Mia as storyteller for Happiness Falls, grounded this fast-paced and urgent unfolding of events, which were cemented in a familiar reality because of her analytical thought-process. Being twenty, she sometimes falls prey to a confidence in her assumptions, but Kim does several wonderful things with and for Mia.
Kim delivers Mia's tale by dipping into moments of second-person narration, addressing you, the reader. While it doesn't always work, like so many writing devices that can be applied wrongly or to the wrong story, second-person narration feels perfectly suited to the combination of this story, these characters, and Kim's style. She neither lingers in these moments for too long, nor does she allow them to overwhelm the story. The transitions in and out are seamless, making for a brilliant use of Mia's point of view. Kim constructs this fictional narrative with footnotes from Mia to further elucidate on points, memories, or even to provide further information that might clog up the main narrative or be too tangential for the flow. Because, if there's one thing Mia loves, it's to have all the available facts and possibilities in front of her.
Secondly, getting to know Mia (and her family) was an absolute pleasure. Mia subverts the I-mustn't-tell-anyone-else-this-hugely-important-thing-until-I-figure-it-out-for-myself trope often attached to characters her age. Kim allows so much self-awareness for Mia, more than most twenty-year-old characters by other authors, and I loved the way Mia would work through her thoughts and feelings. Even her digressions, tangents, and flashbacks (sometimes these were in footnotes and sometimes part of the narrative as a whole), felt plump with possibility and revelation — either for her as a character or the story itself.
In addition to the search for her missing father, the heft of the novel is actually in exploring the family dynamics, heightened and pulled into sharp focus because of the crisis. Mia's family and her role in it, along with the larger view of her family's dual role between the United States and South Korea, and that limbo space between in which multi-racial families are often caught, are at the forefront.
Kim's genius layering of plot and character leaves room for another aspect for exploration — namely the impact on and involvement of Mia's younger brother, Eugene. Diagnosed in childhood with autism and later Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic condition, Eugene's co-morbidities manifest themselves in him as being unable to speak and exhibiting difficulties with fine motor skills, among other symptoms. The main issue being he was the last person to see their father, Adam, before his disappearance.
While they fill slightly smaller roles, Mia's mother, Hannah, and twin brother, John, are no less developed. This family is clearly a tightly knit family. But with several factors at play, throughout Mia's childhood, there are naturally hidden sides and unexplored aspects to each family member and their interconnected relationships. The questions that naturally arise from a missing adult push these four family members into a philosophical state of examining everything they know from different angles. Kim's interest in the absolute enigma other people can be, a mystery to be solved, leans easily into diving into the detective work Mia and her family aim to accomplish, but armed with empathy and understanding.
This is the second book recently, and on trend with others this year I haven’t read, that delves into the marriage and separation of truth and perception. Mia is particularly interested in looking at all the possible angles that explain or support one piece that is given as fact. As in, if X is true — how many explanations can we determine independently support X as truth? And how does that alter or enhance assumptions I already understood to be true. Also, given Eugene's incredibly limited communication abilities, speech and communication are part of the greater focus of perception and truth.
Happiness Falls was such an unputdownable novel, with an authentic and engaging narrative that deftly balances a plot laced with urgency and coming-of-age character growth. The endearingly realistic narrator, twenty-year-old Mia, guides us through the intense search for her missing father, challenging their perceptions and relationships. I highly recommend picking this one up.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
