A sometimes-engrossing series of horrifically banal slices into the lives of several depressed women, this book at first feels almost like a white trash If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, but the only thing connecting one story to another is each protagonist's unwillingness to speak their true feelings to anyone around them. This is no surprise, since each is surrounded by a pantheon of stiffly patriarchal normies.

I believe that this book is realistic, and that makes me sad. ( )

There have been a few books I've read in my life where I feel like I'm from the same world as the characters. Once was when I read a book starring a bassoon player, like me. Then there was this one: writer types from the south, who went through an early divorce. It's kind of a weird experience to see yourself in stories like this, really. So I may be biased, but I thought this was a great collection.

Another review said that these stories were too similar, but I found them to be pretty different in the types of southern women they portrayed, from struggling grad students to trashier types who feel superior but stuck. The writer captured moods and emotions so effectively. Most of the stories were about the early part of a relationship, but she captured the endings well too, and I liked the one story about friendship. I really loved this collection and look forward to reading more from her. ( )

Liked many of these, but for readers who want more variation between stories, it might not be here. Some stories read like extensions of others, just in different settings. ( )

Received via W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
Also posted on Silk & Serif

Always Happy Hour seemed like the type of literature that would be insightful and thought provoking. I envisioned a novel about women who's lives were a mess because of personal struggles or bad luck, perhaps even tales about these women overcoming their poor circumstances - not a set of tales about women who are generally selfish, judgemental and/or continuing to support some serious self-confidence issues. These are women who know they have serious issues and do nothing to change it. In retrospect, this may have been a novel about mental illness rather than a novel about young women struggling with normal life issues - and that's okay - but this set of stories was not written for someone like me and my review will reflect that.

Some women are down on their luck because of temporary issues, others are in situations because they believe they do not deserve better or because they have untreated mental illness. Always Happy Hour is about the later, rather than the former.

It appears a majority of the women have substance abuse problems, issues with identifying physical or emotional abuse in their partners - or they identify the abuse and use drugs and alcohol to deal rather than leaving the abusive partner. There is also evidence of severe depression in the less "messed up" main characters, but throughout there is still a strong sense of judgement from these women towards the poor, the obese and the "ugly" which generally just pissed me off. If life sucks, don't take it out on others. Everyone has their own struggles and judging others for purely physical or economic reasons really pushes my "anti-sympathy" button. It might make me sound terrible, but the harsh judgement or abuse inflicted on others in some of these short stories made the characters extremely unlikable and therefore the novel itself a difficult pill to swallow.

My secondary issue with this novel was the run on sentences. I am in no way a writing genius with perfect grammatical structure - but I can pinpoint a run on sentence. Always Happy Hour is filled with run on sentences which the author could have meant to be stylistic in nature, but were actually extremely annoying. The run on sentences on top of judgmental characters made it difficult to really enjoy this anthology. The synopsis utilized far too many euphemisms for what this novel is really about: seriously damaged individuals who aren't interested in self-improvement or women with serious mental illnesses. I went into this novel expect spunky and fun characters, but got something else entirely.


So, the moral of this review is: this book tricked me into thinking it was something its not. Always Happy Hour is not happy - it is depressing, frustrating and difficult. It wasn't for me, but the cover is certainly pretty.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy anthologies about flawed individuals, novels about sad/dark subjects. I feel the need to note that this anthology uses euphemisms in the synopsis to mislead readers: this novel is about women with serious issues and not an anthology about fun and spunky women. It is not a novel about amusing anecdotes or fun nights out, but a novel about a set of women with a penchant for making poor decisions. I would recommend this to people who don't mind reading sad or intense stories with very little closure. ( )

A collection of pitch-perfect stories about women seeking and rejecting love, fittingly dedicated to Miller’s “exes.” They are as lost and confused as everyone else (more so in some cases) and aren’t afraid to admit it, at least in short bursts. They are at once self-aware, vulnerable, intelligent and observant. Some end with a devastating revelation that puts the entire story in perspective.

Some favorite sentences:
“Other women may do their best to be nice and accommodating but I try to be as unlikeable as possible, test men too soon.”

“When he gets home, I want to go somewhere, the drive-in maybe, but he wants me to handcuff him to the bed.”

“I had a boyfriend but couldn’t stop myself from wanting others. It was a pattern.”

The stories are filled with magical, subversive sentences. This one can serve to sum up this collection:
“I guessed the one thing I couldn’t understand about life was why no one seemed to be with the person they loved most in the world.” ( )