"God, these women were glamorous. Claire had always thought that for the first couple of years after having a baby, you looked like a swamp monster, with spit-up smeared in unlikely places and under-eye circles so deep spelunkers could get lost in them. And yet here these women were, on a random Tuesday afternoon, ready to star in a yogurt commercial. They were so thin too, no signs of baby bellies remaining, even though none of these kids could have been much older than a year, if that. It was like the babies had lived within them for awhile -- raucous, all-consuming tenants-- and then once they'd moved out, the bodies had been fully renovated (fresh-painted walls, resanded floors, new appliances) to hide any sign of wear and tare. Claire was the one that had almost been a rockstar, and yet, comparing herself to these women, she felt unkempt and mundane."
Claire has just been dumped from a band on the path to fame. She is depressed and desperate to find a paying gig to make rent. When she gets the call that a playgroup is looking for a musician to play for their children twice a week she takes the job hesitantly.
Happy and You Know It is the most fun you can have while reading in my opinion. I loved so much about this read. I loved the way that the beginning of this book was narrated by Claire who is an outsider to motherhood. She isn't a mother and the mothers she has encountered aren't this polished and together. Claire's outside perspective intersects with the reader and creates an experience where the reader feels like they are being let in on something they aren't supposed to know about. When you first meet the Playgroup Moms, you can't help but compare your own differences as a mother and a woman with those of the status oriented mother's but by the end you realize, there are just some things that all women and mom's have in common.
At first Happy and You Know It was a blast because it felt an awful lot like reading a "Tell all" memoir written by a reality TV Star but then this book takes a surprising turn. It shifts from depthless-fun to a dark comedic commentary on the overly high expectations put on women by society that we internalize to our great detriment. This bait and switch was a lot grittier than I thought possible for a book this fun. The depth came largely in part to the growth and vulnerable friendships of two of the main characters. I love books that represent female friendships well and there was a friendship in this storyline that I felt did that very well.
If the screen writers of Working Moms had an affair with Liane Moriarty, I think their love child would read a lot like Happy and You Know It! If that isn't reason enough to give this a shot, I told my husband all about this book ( spoilers included ) and he said "wow. That actually sounds kind of cool." Do I think your husband would enjoy this? Probably not but the mere fact that he recognized how unique it was really spoke to the likability factor present within the pages of this story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars
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