‘Happy’ by Richard Ford

Happy by Richard Ford, 2020

The magic trick:

A rich, if simple, setup

Like “The Run Of Yourself,” one of my favorite Richard Ford’s stories, this one finds us back in the state of Maine. Also like “The Run of Yourself,” this one features characters reckoning with the recent death of a loved one. But unlike “The Run Of Yourself,” which really captures a personal experience and winds its way through a kind of lovely lost loneliness, “Happy” looks at a group dynamic. Specifically, it’s a group of old friends, maybe sometimes lovers, maybe most-of-the-time rivals. That means the story is imbued with more than just the loss of their friend. The loss of time hangs heavily over the story. The dead reminds the living that they are dying.

From a storytelling standpoint, you can see that it’s an interesting way to set up a group of friends getting together for the first time in a long time.

And that’s quite a trick on Ford’s part.

The selection:

He and Bobbi kept separate accommodations. She owned lurchers, which he didn’t like and made no secret about. She had achieved, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, a reputation for large, kinetic, solar-powered, outdoor metal and glass “installations” that mimicked the wheeling of the constellations and “troped” different directions in different seasons. Many people in Bucks County and Connecticut and Taos owned a Happy Kamper. Her work re-framed the natural world, especially the ocean, in mysterious and revealing ways.

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