Happy Hour

(flopping between a 2 and a 3 star)

I thought I would love this. I too am a young girl in my twenties who finds myself in the art scene. While the dialogue is impressive I found that the main characters own dialogue was utterly unbelievable which was a contrast to her inner dialogue which I found funny. She goes back and forth between simple honest observations about class, life, art, to shallow, naive, self-righteous lines, this jump is usually pretty quick and I huffed in laughter a few times at the jump. I consider this part of what the book was trying to accomplish, not quite a child but definitely not an adult.

Isa and Gala were irritating to me, they squandered their months in New York by not using the network of people they had set up. They wasted money and time, which is another symptom of being young. They never used their strengths, this bothered me most in Isa. Every character looks down upon Gala but I do not see how Isa and Gala are different. Isa annoyed because she was never shown this, or never understood. Nothing ever came of her friendship with Gala in terms of depth, action, or meaning, or in storyline I should say. Her and Gala are friends because they understand each other, are alike, and have known each other a long time, but what else?

This book does not rely on plot it is carried by conversation and characters but I found these characters boring. I never wondered about their relationship, if it would end or change. I never wondered about any of these relationships.

So why did I keep reading? Because of the prose. The writing lulls you into it, it sets atmosphere well, has a strong consistent tone that does not question or doubt itself.