Book Review: I'm So Happy For You

I'm So Happy for You: A novel about best friends
By Lucinda Rosenfeld
Back Bay Books
Publication Date: July 29, 2009
ISBN:978-0316044509

I'm So Happy For You by Lucinda Rosenfeld is a book most girls should read. It's so honest, so gritty, so observant that I almost felt like Rosenfeld was writing about me.

I'm So Happy For You is about friendship. Wendy and Daphne have been best friends for over 15 years - from college through their 30's. Daphne is erratic, beautiful, dramatic and catastrophe prone. By contrast, Wendy is insecure, slightly obsessive and a listener. Although Wendy lived behind Daphne's popularity in college, she starts to shine in her 30's with a successful job and husband. And even though she feels bad for Daphne's misfortunes, secretly, she's slightly happy to finally have a better, albeit modest, life. That is, until Daphne happens upon a handsome and rich bachelor who immediately proposes, impregnates her, and buys her a brownstone in Brooklyn all within weeks. Suddenly, Wendy's spot as forerunner shifts and she, once again, becomes increasingly jealous of Daphne's almost perfect life. But, little does she know, Daphne's life isn't as wonderful as it may seem.

I'm So Happy For You is an incredibly realistic and truthful look at female friendships. As a girl with a number of close friends, I know how important, and yet how hard at times they can be. With one friend in particular, like Wendy I always lived behind her glow and her line of admirers. And like Wendy, I found my comfortable spot and, okay sometimes, was happy that I wasn't as flaky as she was. Rosenfeld wrote what I felt and never wanted to admit. Zoe Heller comments on the book: "A finely observed and witty account of the jealousies that lurk within even the kindest of female hearts." It's so true!

ISHFY is a story about friendship relationships and breakups. Rosenfeld says it best: "In romance, breaking up is understood to be a shattering event that throws the future into question. In friendship, it's a small setback, a minor irritation. If you don't like hanging out with someone, don't hang out with him/her anymore...And yet...I saw that friendship had been the source of both tremendous joy and profound hurt as friends had abandoned me, or I them."

Friendship means so much more to girls than guys. We put more into each friend, and tie so many memories to them. The book is just like that - each moment reminds Wendy, the narrator, of a previous episode with Daphne. And although they have other friends to confide in, talk snarky to and such, they are one another's so called "best friends." It's a title with so much baggage.

I really enjoyed the honest look at the female characters. It's depressing, but refreshingly truthful. And it's even incredibly funny at times! I found myself chuckling and sometimes pointing to the page, guffawing because I've said/done/thought the same thing. I even liked the dysfunctional relationship between Wendy and her husband Adam because it felt so real. And, in the end, I love that you don't hate either of the characters. On the contrary, you sympathize with them both - feel like both of them. As Rosenfeld continues, "One of my goals...was to make both main characters simultaneously problematic and sympathetic. If you come away loathing one or both of them, I haven't done my job." It's true - you love both characters for their flaws. For who they are, just as you love your friends no matter what.

I like how, just like friendships, the book ends at the perfect moment. After everything is revealed, everything is established and the pieces are slowly forming themselves again.

I can't say I loved this book, but I really did enjoy it (reading it in the span of two plane rides!) and will definitely recommend it to others. Like I said, I think every female reader should check it, along with her fantastic articles, out. Hopefully it'll make us all a bit more truthful when it comes to friendships.

More books by Lucinda Rosenfeld
Articles written for NYMag by Rosenfeld
Rosenfeld's new friendship column
Book's official website