HAPPY NOW?

Numb-with-grief young widow struggles to make sense of her husband’s Valentine’s Day suicide.

Believing herself to be in an imperfect but basically happy marriage, Claire Kessler is forced to rethink everything about her life after Jay, her husband of nearly two years, chooses to end his by plummeting from the balcony of a Chicago high-rise. That he does it during a crowded Valentine’s Day party is made even more shocking by the fact that he decides to go through with it after Claire, who had not been planning to go, surprises him at the celebration. There were signs. A behavioral psychology professor with a history of depression, Jay doesn’t leave a note—he leaves a binder. This binder contains, among other things, a personal note to his wife that she puts off reading for as long as she can. In the weeks following Jay’s death, Claire, who’s a bit of a loner, is surrounded by well-intentioned family. She shares a bed with her pregnant sister Nomie, who virtually abandons her own husband to look after her, while their mostly silent father Douglas keeps vigil across the street like some sort of guardian angel/stalker. Claire also visits Jay’s therapist, bonds with his cat, Fang, and attends a support group, while trying to process her guilt and anger. So was Jay a self-absorbed jerk, or the love of her life, who just happened to be stricken with debilitating mental illness? The reality, as she discovers when she finally reads the note, might be somewhere in between, and it is up to her to muster enough forgiveness for the both of them. With gentle humor and a complex heroine, Shonk’s (The Red Passport, 2003) confident first novel uses a light hand to sketch out some dark truths.

Sensitive and engrossing portrayal of the grieving process that never resorts to cliché.