Dunn charts several New Yorkers' lives in this snappy novel. The spotlight most often falls on Holly Frick, a 35-year-old divorcée whose egg walls "are taking on the consistency of tissue paper as we speak." A writer whose cheeky first novel bombed, Holly now resides low enough on the TV totem pole to be cranking out after-school dreck with her gay pal Leonard. Meanwhile, her best friend, Amanda, is cheating on her husband, and Holly adopts Chester, a cute little dog with cancer whose hopeful approach to life mirrors Holly's. While Holly's love life follows a formula-familiar trajectory, Amanda's romantic flailing ensnares Holly, and Chester's destiny takes an unexpected turn that means big changes for both of them. Although clichés pop up (the supergay friend, a $1,200 purse splurge), the energetic and witty prose speeds along the narrative. It's smarter than the usual single-in-the-city fare, and funnier, too. (Mar.)
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Like Dunn's heroine in her debut, The Big Love , Holly Frick is brokenhearted and looking for happiness against the backdrop of hectic New York City. Holly believes in doing the right thing. Whether it's a result of her evangelical Christian upbringing or just a generally overactive conscience, the "right thing" includes adopting a dog with a brain tumor and meeting her married friend's paramour because her friend thinks they'll like each other. The assorted cast of supporting characters includes a 22-year-old lover, a skinny girl who finally agrees to date the overweight guy from her gym, and a gay man who has an unhealthy relationship with his attention deficit disorder meds. These characters circle around Holly in an exploration of six degrees of separation as she touches each of them-and they her-in their quests for happiness. Readers of Dunn's previous novel and fans of Jennifer Weiner and Jane Green will enjoy the sophisticated tone of this classic searching-for-love story. Recommended for popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/08.]
"SECRETS TO HAPPINESS is smart, bitingly funny, laced with sitcom-sharp dialogue, and bittersweet. Far from a confectionary tale, it reads more like a spiritual journey, one that follows Holly and a cast of supporting characters as they try to turn their lives around. . . . But since this is not a chick-lit book, a guy is not the answer here. For Holly and her supporting cast, the secret to happiness is embracing the fact that, as one character states, it's OK to live an ordinary life. This means accepting a life they would have otherwise shunned."—New York Observer Boston Globe Secrets to Happiness , I found myself thinking that again and again and again."—Delia Ephron , author of Hanging Up and co-writer of You've Got Mail Secrets to Happiness is a fun, insightful portrait of the urban professional woman, and mercifully devoid of shoe shopping scenes. Sarah Dunn is a terrifically talented writer with a brilliant sense of comic timing."—Christopher Moore , author of Lamb and A Dirty Job Secrets to Happiness is brimming with Sarah Dunn's vivid characters and engaging voice and will linger long after you've finished the last page. I love this book!"—Emily Giffin , author of Love the One You're With and Something Borrowed Toby Young , author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People The Big Love , 2004) with a ... tale simultaneously elevated by its snappy humor and tinged by some reflective shading.... Deft repartee and happy endings all around ... in this smart chick-lit tale with dark undertones."—Kirkus Publishers Weekly Booklist Marie Claire Secrets to Happiness ... makes for good, sharp fun."—Entertainment Weekly People Wall Street Journal TIME The Miami Herald
"Here's a secret: Read the book. More likely than not, it'll make you happy."
"Sarah Dunn is a wise and brilliant writer who doesn't sacrifice emotional complexity for low humor--she gives you both."
"Ms. Dunn shuttles her characters around New York with deft precision, weaving their lives together seamlessly."
"A big-city smart, yet universally appealing, little gem. . . . The hapless protagonist of this topical novel is such a clever observer of modern life, offering a wealth of Exacto-sharp theories that echo sentiments we may feel but would hesitate to express."
"Secrets to Happiness ... makes for good, sharp fun."
"A savory treat...packed with dogs, divorce, and dizzying dysfunction."
"Dunn displays a rapier wit; a perfectly nuanced gift for savvy, sophisticated dialogue; and an endearing moral compass, which she uses to great advantage as she blithely navigates the fraught and fatuous world of trendy New York's treacherous dating scene."
"Sarah Dunn achieves what so many authors set out to do but so few manage: she captures the Zeitgeist. If you can imagine a cross between Candace Bushnell and Edith Wharton, that is Sarah Dunn."
Toby Young - author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
"A smart, heartwarmingly funny story about modern love in the city.Secrets to Happiness is brimming with Sarah Dunn's vivid characters and engaging voice and will linger long after you've finished the last page. I love this book!"
Emily Giffin - author of Love the One You're With and Something Borrowed
"Secrets to Happiness is a fun, insightful portrait of the urban professional woman, and mercifully devoid of shoe shopping scenes. Sarah Dunn is a terrifically talented writer with a brilliant sense of comic timing."
Christopher Moore - author of Lamb and A Dirty Job
"I love this book. Sarah Dunn is very funny, that's the first thing to say. But she is also deep, interesting and subtle. Her characters could be my friends and yet they utterly surprise me. She is so smart about life and society and the complex and contradictory ways our hearts behave. "Oh that is so true." As I read Secrets to Happiness , I found myself thinking that again and again and again."
Delia Ephron - author of Hanging Up and co-writer of You've Got Mail
"Sarah Dunn's novel zips along hilariously, fueled by pitch-perfect dialogue. . . . SECRETS TO HAPPINESS is an antic urban comedy, with enough neurotic characters to fill the cast of a Woody Allen movie. It's great fun."
"SECRETS TO HAPPINESSis smart, bitingly funny, laced with sitcom-sharp dialogue, and bittersweet. Far from a confectionary tale, it reads more like a spiritual journey, one that follows Holly and a cast of supporting characters as they try to turn their lives around. . . . But since this is not a chick-lit book, a guy is not the answer here. For Holly and her supporting cast, the secret to happiness is embracing the fact that, as one character states, it's OK to live an ordinary life. This means accepting a life they would have otherwise shunned."
Sarah Dunn achieves what so many authors set out to do but so few manage: she captures the Zeitgeist. If you can imagine a cross between Candace Bushnell and Edith Wharton, that is Sarah Dunn.author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
A smart, heartwarmingly funny story about modern love in the city.Secrets to Happiness is brimming with Sarah Dunn's vivid characters and engaging voice and will linger long after you've finished the last page. I love this book!author of Love the One You're With and Something Borrowed
Secrets to Happiness is a fun, insightful portrait of the urban professional woman, and mercifully devoid of shoe shopping scenes. Sarah Dunn is a terrifically talented writer with a brilliant sense of comic timing.author of Lamb and A Dirty Job
I love this book. Sarah Dunn is very funny, that's the first thing to say. But she is also deep, interesting and subtle. Her characters could be my friends and yet they utterly surprise me. She is so smart about life and society and the complex and contradictory ways our hearts behave. "Oh that is so true." As I read Secrets to Happiness , I found myself thinking that again and again and again.author of Hanging Up and co-writer of You've Got Mail
"Ms. Dunn shuttles her characters around New York with deft precision, weaving their lives together seamlessly."
"Secrets to Happiness is smart, bitingly funny, laced with sitcom-sharp dialogue and bittersweet. Far from a confectionary tale, it reads more like a spiritual journey, one that follows Holly and a cast of supporting characters as they try to turn their lives around.... But since this is not a chick-lit book, a guy is not the answer here. For Holly and her supporting cast, the secret to happiness is embracing the fact that, as one character states, it's O.K. to live an ordinary life. This means accepting a life they would have otherwise shunned."
"Unlike chick lit, chick TV and chick movies, Secrets to Happiness is actually funny.... In the end, what makes Dunn's novel such a pleasure to read is the very thing that keeps it from being a breathless page-turner: Holly's singular spirituality. She may be as baffled as everyone else about how to achieve happiness, but she also knows that happiness isn't all that it's cracked up to be. In a world -- fictional and non- -- where doing a good thing gets you accused of having a messiah complex, and doing whatever you want is justified as following your path, Holly never stops trying to figure out where her duty lies. Underneath it all -- the sex, the shopping, the city -- she's an old-fashioned heroine. Also funny."
New York Times Book Review
By all appearances, Holly Frick is living the good life of a mid-30s divorcée in New York City. Her glamorous TV writing job (admittedly, it's a dreadful after-school sitcom) leaves time for her gorgeous boyfriend (OK, so he's embarrassingly young and dense, but he's cute) and her newly adopted dog (surely he will survive the cancer). Julie Dretzin's narration provides glimpses of Holly's anxiety peeping out from the cloak of her determined charm. Dretzin's natural style adds realism to Holly's conversations with her best friend, Amanda. Thanks to Dretzin's subtle variations in male characters, Holly's overtly gay co-writer is delightful, and her cheeseburger-chomping Buddhist love interest is intriguing. It seems that Holly surprises herself by discovering that compromises sometimes lead to happiness. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2009 - AudioFile
