Book Review: A Happier Life

Synopsis:

The historic houses in the seaside town of Beaufort, North Carolina, have held the secrets of their inhabitants for centuries. One of the most enduring mysteries concerns Rebecca and Townsend Saint James. They disappeared on a summer night in 1976, leaving friends and loved ones perplexed about their fate.

Now, their granddaughter, Keaton Smith, is desperate for a fresh start. And her mother, Rebecca, and Townsend’s daughter, needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort on the market. So Keaton accepts the opportunity to head south and settle, at long last, the affairs of the grandparents she never knew.

The house has been closed and unoccupied for nearly fifty years. But the moment Keaton steps inside the abandoned home, she wonders if she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Wading through the detritus of her grandparents’ lives, Keaton finds herself enchanted by their southern traditions — and their great, big love. As she gets to know her charming next-door neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of feisty but endearing town busybodies, Keaton begins to ponder whether the stories she has been told about her grandparents are true.

The annual summer suppers Rebecca (“Becks”) hosted were legendary, with both locals and out-of-towners clamoring for an invitation to her stunning historic home. But in that fateful summer, she was struggling — facing problems even she couldn’t solve – but maintaining the facade of the woman with an indomitable spirit who could do it all.

As Keaton and Becks face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the secrets, hopes, and dreams of their family for generations.

Bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey explores the power of family, the boundless nature of love, and how discovering where we came from can lead us to A Happier Life.

Review:

Kristy Woodson Harvey says that of all the books she has written to date, A Happier Life is her favorite. She describes it as the story of Keaton Smith “going back to Beaufort, North Carolina, to clean out and sell the house of the grandparents who died long before she was born and, in the process, finding out what actually happened to them — and discovering the next step on her own life’s journey.”

The premise of the book may sound unbelievable. But, in fact, the story was inspired by actual events. Harvey’s great-aunt and uncle died under mysterious circumstances in the 1970’s and at just ten years of age, she was “one of the first people to enter their home after it had been closed up for fifty years.” She remembers that “it was just as though someone walked out of the door fifty years ago, sealed the door, and we walked back into it the moment after they left.” In A Happier Life, Keaton’s grandparents, Rebecca (“Becks”) and Townsend Saint James, hosted their final supper of the summer on August 28, 1976 . . . and then vanished. Their vehicle was found submerged in a creek, and neither seatbelt was buckled. But search parties found neither clues as to their whereabouts . . . nor their remains. The mystery of what happened to them is still unsolved. And for the nearly five decades since that fateful night, their home has remained just as they left it (although a handyman has looked after the property). Virginia, Keaton’s mother, and her uncle, Lon, have never been able to bring themselves to return to Beaufort to settle their parents’ affairs. In fact, Keaton had no idea that her grandparents simply disappeared or that her mother and uncle still owned the house she has heard so much about but never visited. Now, to avoid any conflict among their heirs, Virginia and Lon have decided the time has come to get the house ready to sell and put it on the market. Keaton is thirty-three years old, and has just been dumped by her boyfriend and lost the job she loved on the same day, so she welcomes the opportunity for a change of scene and to earn a commission that will make her career transition – whatever that turns out to be – easier, at least from a financial perspective.

Harvey opens the book with a Prologue in the house’s voice. It is an unusual, but effective technique, signaling that the setting will serve as a vibrant character in the story, establishing the particulars of the setting, and drawing readers into the mystery. The two hundred and fifty-four-year-old structure has been owned by one family since it was the first house erected on Sunset Lane in 1769, and it reveals that it alone knows the truth about Becks and Townsend. It has “held the truth right here all this time, if anyone had bothered to uncover it.” Harvey wanted to emphasize that “houses forever hold the stories of their inhabitants.”

Harvey then employs a first-person narrative from Keaton to relate her journey to Beaufort and experiences there. Two third-person narratives are told from the perspectives of Becks, primarily, and Townsend, relating how they met, fell in love, and married, undeterred by the objections and ultimatums of their families because of religious differences. (His family was Catholic and Becks’ father was a Methodist minister.)

Keaton is overwhelmed when she first enters the house with her dog, Salt. (Salt is Harvey’s own dog and “a local celebrity” in Beaufort where she resides with her husband and son in a is one hundred and three-year-old house.) The Saint James family house is obviously dated, and dust coats the interior. Keaton bemoans that it “is like an untouched crime scene . . .creepy.” It feels to her “like everyone walked out of here almost fifty years ago, locked the door and never came back.” Seeing that Salt has immediately put something in his mouth, she retrieves it and finds it is a white leather notebook with “Rebecca Saint James’s Guide to Entertaining – 1976” embossed on the cover. She, like readers, instantly wants to devour its contents and Harvey obliges, starting each chapter focused on Becks with excerpts from her Guide. She wrote it for Virginia, and it is comprised of recipes, menus, guest lists, and tips for successfully hosting parties. Harvey recalls that as she started writing each chapter, “I would just think about something my grandmother would have said,” and the excerpts wound up being one of her favorite elements of the book. Keaton also finds Townsend’s journals. The entries begin in 1935 when he meets the woman who will become his wife. He was a highly decorated pilot who flew missions during World War II before settling in Beaufort with his bride and practicing medicine there for many years.

In alternating chapters, Harvey details the challenges Keaton faces as she begins organizing and sorting through her grandparents’ belongings and working to make the house livable. They include squirrels in the kitchen and necessary repairs, but the grand old home is full of antiques and other valuable collectibles . . . as well as charm and memories galore. She meets Alex, the handyman who has been looking after the house when he’s not dressed as and conducting pirate tours, as well as the next-door neighbors. Anderson is a precocious ten-year-old who is eager to help with renovations but his father, Bowen, a marine biologist, is initially stand-offish and rude, although Keaton finds him “hunky.” She also meets Violet, who was Virginia’s friend when they were young woman, and the other Dockhouse Dames – Suzanne, Arlene, and Better – who fold Keaton into their tribe and provide support, camaraderie, and dating advice, in addition to details about and insight into her grandparents’ lives. She also develops a better understanding of her mother, and not just how different she is from Becks, but why.

Townsend and Becks lived a happy, productive life, although they did experience heartbreak. It was a different era, to be sure, but one in which Becks relished her role as the best hostess in Beaufort and being a traditional wife and mother fulfilled her. Harvey believes “there is a lot you can learn about a person from the way they take care of other people.” And Becks is very much a caregiver, but also a determined woman whose graciousness is matched by her inner fortitude. Becks was completely satisfied with her life, and cherished both her husband (Townsend taught her to fly and they loved taking flights several times per week in their private plane) and children, as well as her friends. There is an especially poignant aspect of her story concerning her estrangement from her parents and how she ultimately deals with it. And her entries expose a potentially scandalous situation involving a Beaufort resident who comes under suspicion. Could Townsend and Becks have been victims of foul play, as some of the townspeople have long postulated?

As her days in Beaufort fly by, Keaton develops an appreciation of and admiration for the grandparents she never had a chance to meet. And she falls in love – with the town, her family’s house, her newfound friends, Anderson, and, naturally, his father. But she spent twelve years establishing her career in New York City. Is she ready to give up her professional dreams? She is readying the house to be sold and it will become the property of a new family for the first time in its long history. Although she is finally getting to know her grandparents, she knows that even if the mystery surrounding their disappearance is solved, they will not be coming back to Beaufort. And Bowen, her initially grumpy neighbor, has his own complicated romantic history in addition to a son who needs to have a healthy and consistent relationship with his mother, if that is possible.

Townsend and Becks are lovingly conceived, memorable characters. They are both accomplished, intelligent, opinionated, and strong. They built a life together, raised two children, and cultivated lasting friendships in a community they loved. Through the years they remained steadfastly devoted to each other, still delighting in each other’s company. All of which makes their story a moving, thoughtful meditation on several themes, including aging, dignity, and autonomy, as well as the importance of choosing what we will leave to the next generation and the power to craft one’s own legacy.

Harvey’s love for the “quirky, historic, seaside town and the people in it” is evident on every page, as is her compassion for the characters she brings to life. A Happier Life is an homage to what she calls “that sacred space that is held between the future and the past, the push-pull of preserving tradition while keeping today’s pace, of trying to reconcile the beauty of what those who came before created with the reality of how we live today.” The story is a delightful mixture of genres. It is replete with the kind of light-hearted moments readers expect in romantic comedies and the requisite happy ending. But it is also riveting mystery (within which Harvey deftly weaves yet another mystery) and examination of profound topics, adeptly presented with a light touch and nonjudgmental tone that invite readers to contemplate the characters’ dilemmas and ponder what they would do under similar circumstances in order to find their own happier life.

Excerpt from A Happier Life

Also by Kristy Woodson Harvey:

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of A Happier Life free of charge from the author via Net Galley, as well as a paperback copy from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.