Secrets to Happiness

January 5, 2009
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.

By all appearances, Holly Frick is living the good life of a mid-30s divorcÄe 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. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine