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Always Happy Hour: Stories
Unavailable
Always Happy Hour: Stories
Unavailable
Always Happy Hour: Stories
Audiobook6 hours

Always Happy Hour: Stories

Written by Mary Miller

Narrated by Madeleine Lambert

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Always Happy Hour weaves tales of young women who are deeply flawed, intensely real, and who struggle to get out of their own way. These women love to drink and have sex; they make bad decisions with men who love them too much or too little; they haunt gas stations, public pools, and dive bars, seeking understanding in the most unlikely of places; and, although each shoulders the weight of different baggage, they all suspect they deserve better. In this collection of acerbic and ruefully funny stories, Miller takes a microscope to love and intimacy, evoking the reticence of love among the misunderstood, the grit and comfort of bad habits that can't be broken, and the beat-by-beat minutiae of ill-fated relationships.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 7, 2017
ISBN9781520072982
Unavailable
Always Happy Hour: Stories
Author

Mary Miller

Mary Miller was a founder member and Director of the Jeely Piece Club, sharing with other local families in establishing self-help and mutual support for parents and children in a Glasgow housing scheme. Later specialising in the care of traumatised children, she carried out a similar role for HIV+ orphans in rural Zimbabwe from 2007-2012. Named Evening Times 'International Scotswoman of the Year' in 2009, her lifelong interest in the care of children in difficult situations drew her to explore Jane Haining’s devotion to the Jewish girls in her care.

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Reviews for Always Happy Hour

Rating: 3.6249999714285717 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

28 ratings7 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3.5 the stories in this collection explore the unsatisfying relationships and friendships in which the women are involved. They all want love, in more than one story the woman laments that though she listens and asks questions of her boyfriend, he seems to have little interest in her own feelings, thoughts. They come from different walks of life, some in college, even a few teachers but they all seem to make bad choices. Some stand in their own way, using drugs, alcohol to try to come to terms with their relationship. Many envision a different future but are instead stagnating in their current relationship.One story I enjoyed featured a young woman and her boyfriend taking a cruise with his parents. She get seasick, feels horrible but still does what her boyfriends asks, sexually, just to keep him out of the casino and away from other women. Another story, First Class, shows a woman on vacation with her now wealthy friend, said friend having won the lottery. They don't get along and the woman wonders why her friend doesn't spend more money on her, at the same time wondering why she still goes on these uncomfortable vacations.Like my friend Esil my favorite story was Big, Bad, Love and show a woman working at a shelter for abused children, choosing one child and hoping that in the future the child will realize that someone once loved her. I debated whether to go up or down in my rating, but there were a few stories that just seemed to drop off into nothing, and one I couldn't make heads or tails of. Still, a good collection, solid writing and a recurring theme, some of these women I just wanted to shake and tell them to make better decisions. So, on the whole I thought these were well worth reading, but at a time when short stories have made a resurgence in popularity I have read better. ARC from Netgalley.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really love these stories, which are exquisitely crafted. I want to lean in to the narrators, to learn more about their lives and challenges, to listen in to their interior voice which is so astute and fearless, even as they wrestle with anxiety and addiction and shame.

    My main criticism of this book is the narration, which is a little flat. Often the last line feels too rushed. A pause... a breath... another beat would make the endings land better. The timing of the title introduction to the next short story could be longer too, to create a delineation.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If Mary Miller’s last novel The Last Days of California was a love letter to adolescence, her latest work is a series of love letters to arrested development--letters never sent, pushed to the back of the desk drawer--unread, but not forgotten.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.”

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mary Miller offers a brutal and honest look at one breed of contemporary young women in her collection, Always Happy Hour. With stark consideration, Miller pulls the veil back from these seemingly rough women and shows us the pain beneath the surface. These are stories that do not shy away from “bad behavior,” nor from feelings. There is a rawness to them that leaves the reader with the feeling of an intellectual rug burn: it hurts, but you can't help but admire it.Each story shows a slice of a woman's life, a woman dependent on some relationship, and the seemingly bad choices she makes. There was maybe one exception, but for the most part these stories followed the same thread. Halfway through the collection, the expectation is established and the formula becomes somewhat trite. Even the self-deprecating thoughts of each protagonist were horribly similar. Contained in 256 pages, it works, though readers who balk at hints of depravity will likely cease reading before reaching the end.Here's the thing about Always Happy Hour: the lack of variety may go on a bit too long, but it's largely a success. Yes, all the lead characters share a similarity from story to story. Yes, there is an obvious theme at play here. And as I was reading, I was reminded of Junot Díaz. It's clear that Díaz is going to have a hell of a time getting away from Yunior or any character that resembles him. If he ever does, I suspect critics will tear the work apart. Díaz has typecast himself because he had a great character and a wonderful theme and he was excited to stay in that world. Miller's protagonists remind me considerably of Yunior: they're crass, their actions can be repulsive, and yet you see their humanity and feel something for them. Many readers assume Yunior is a reflection of Díaz and it seems, from Díaz's interviews and appearances, that the two truly share little. Whether Miller is like or not like the characters of Always Happy Hour doesn't matter, but what might matter is how her readers view her. It's evident in the talent shown here that Miller is very close to these characters, but I can see how that might lead to similar results as Díaz has experienced with Yunior. Of course that means there may be a Pulitzer in the future for Miller, but I hope it's not at the risk of her boxing herself in first.