Domesticity through the eyes of a husband and wife. Different because there is no infidelity; just 2 people trying to make their way through ordinary life. ( )

“Happenstance, The Husband’s Story was first published in Canada by McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1980. Happenstance, The Wife’s Story was first published as A Fairly Conventional Woman in Canada by Macmillan of Canada 1982. This volume first published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate Limited 1991.

Published back to front, but the need for publishing info constructs the book so that most will start with the wife’s story. I read in order of publication (ie husband first). I'm glad I did.

In 1978 Jack and Brenda Bowman, have been married for 20 years and have 2 kids (Rob 14 and Laurie 12), and live in a suburb of Chicago built in the 1920s. Brenda, a quilter, has gone to Philly for 5 days to attend a craft conference, leaving Jack with the kids. This time apart is unusual for them.

While Brenda is away, Jack deals with his “best friend” Bernie’s marriage break-up, a giant snow-storm, and the news that an old girlfriend is publishing a book on the very area that he is writing his (stalled) one: Indian trading practices. (In the end, Harriet is writing about India, Jack about the Great Lakes indigenous peoples.)

Brenda deals with running into an old friend who is attending another conference in the same hotel and flirts with the possibility of being unfaithful.

I loved the concept of this completed novel. Shields' books aren't high-octane plots but her writing is gorgeous and she had an amazing insight into human nature. ( )

Earlier this year I read Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and while it has a few moments of brilliance, I didn’t think it was all that stellar. A review mentioned Happenstance as a better novel about two sides of a marriage and after doing a bit of research I decided to get a copy. Originally there were two books published; The Husband's story in 1980 and The Wife’s story in 1982. I tried to get them as individual books, but finally settled for the paperback which is presented with two front covers, the sections laid back to back, one upside down from the other. You have to flip the book over to read the other side. It’s a bit gimmicky, but it works and specifically for how I wanted to read the novel; not one entire narrative at a time, but interleaving the chapters staying at roughly the same time period for each. I think it worked.

Ostensibly it’s the tale of Brenda and Jack and their first time spent apart for any long period; five days, but also it’s the story of their whole marriage and how each sees it and the other. There aren’t any great secrets here or earth shattering reveals, it’s a quieter novel about the quotidian parts of married life and how they can mask deeper currents or even soothe an unquiet heart.

There are differences as well as parallels between the stories. Jack brings procrastination to a whole new level; he’s an artist and therefore has an unfinished manuscript that’s been languishing for years. In Brenda’s story there is an unfinished quilt, but because she’s a doer, we know it won’t stay that way for long and I wonder if she’s leaving it unfinished so Jack won’t feel so badly about his book. The ultimate solution about Jack’s book and the spectre of Harriet Post is pretty funny and typical of a man in Jack’s place and time, well almost any man, really, thinking himself center of everyone’s universe. At heart though, Jack is lazy and so dependent on other people that he leaves his kitchen a reeking mess and can’t change the ribbon on his own typewriter.

He is loyal though and so is Brenda and they both have the same romantic idea of their shared domestic situation; delighting in its simplicity and its mark of adulthood. Brenda is ending one phase of her life and beginning another; her kids aren’t dependent on her even if her husband is and she’s sort of going through the stages of grief over it; the anger phase is most prominent. The guild gathering is the perfect way to snap it off and mark it well. I did think that the quilt motif a bit heavy-handed in the sense that it’s Brenda’s way of seeing and processing history which is so different from Jack’s more literal way. The comment on how women’s artistic endeavors have been ignored and sidelined into “handicrafts” didn’t go unnoticed. It reminds me of the way some “pure” scientists ridiculed Benjamin Franklin because his approach was toward the practical application of science, not just for itself. The metallurgists anyone? Even though Jack is fallow, and not producing much, is his work inherently more important than Brenda’s because hers takes the form of quilts? It’s just one of the many questions you’ll have to think about with this novel. ( )

I enjoyed reading the story from two different perspectives, and I wonder if it would have changed my reading to swap the order. Carol Shields has a realistic narrative style, but I wanted more of an outcome from the characters' ponderings. ( )

Interesting premise...essentially two books in one, where you learn what happens during five days that a married couple spends away from each other, from each of their perspectives. The focus on domestic minutiae irritated me occasionally, and I didn't really love either character.

I recommend reading The Husband's Story first, though you could go either way. ( )