Happiness (Harpham) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Utterly gorgeous…heartbreaking…staggering.… If you’re looking for a book to love, I recommend it.… [Happiness] is told in riveting, plot-twisting fashion.… But I’ll say that it’s also told with care and courage and humor, and it will deepen your understanding of not just life with a sick child, but life.
Chicago Tribune


A heartfelt exploration of mortality and life, this memoir also explores the complex pulls and pushes of human relationships, and the deep debt we owe to family, friends, and modern medicine. At heart, it is a sobering mediation on the lasting impermanence of its titular emotion, happiness.
NPR


An amazing story of love (almost) lost, then found.
People


Absorbing.… A beautifully-written, insightful tale.
Good Housekeeping


Heather Harpham's moving memoir, [Happiness] is a page-turner.
Redbook


In this moving memoir…[Harpham] describes with warmth, fearless honesty, and humor the harrowing saga of what happened after she gave birth.… Harpham has written a heartfelt exploration of familial bonds and the sometimes incredibly bumpy journey one must take to get to contentment.
Publishers Weekly


An award-winning writer, performer, and teacher of physical theater/improvisation, Harpham tells a heartrending story of discovering hours after giving birth that something was dangerously wrong with her baby.
Library Journal


Happiness is an incredibly moving account of survival and love that will inspire readers to hold on tight to what’s truly important.
Booklist


[Happiness] is filled with both pain and beauty, and [Harpham] shares a clear-eyed view of messy relationships and the journey toward something resembles joy...[A] powerful memoir.
BookPage


Although a personal story, Harpham's memoir provides a larger, universal picture of unconditional love toward a child and the push-pull of an adult relationship and all its inherent highs and lows. A frank and often affecting memoir from a mother determined to do whatever it takes for her child.
Kirkus Reviews