Happiness Forever

Books

A complete refreshment and uplift of energy: a hilarious, beguiling first novel for the head and the heart. "It's maybe six hundred times a day," Sylvie says, and then she stops and the therapist tilts her head. "That I think about you," Sylvie goes on, the word you said so quietly as to be barely audible. Sylvie is happy only when she is in therapy. This is because Sylvie is in love with her therapist; she thinks about her every second they're not together (roughly 167 hours and 10 minutes per week). In that room, Sylvie is able to talk about everything. Her true pleasures, which include hitting a piñata so the candy falls out; her thoughts about the false hope promised by eighties music; and what a dog's inner life is really like. She's aware she has an obsession, but whether it's a case of extreme transference, "erotic transference," or a lost person's need to connect, Sylvie isn't sure. Beyond therapy, Sylvie has what she considers to be a small life: a job as a veterinary nurse, companionship from ...