Monday Moments - This is Happiness by Niall Williams

I enjoyed History of the Rain so much, I had to  find other Niall  Williams to read.  This is Happiness did not disappoint. 

cover blurb - Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish  parish unaltered in a thousand years. Electricity is  coming and the rain seems to stop. 

Noel Crowe is seventeen, restless, and a bit excited when Christy comes to Faha. He has secrets and a past love here in Faha. Meanwhile, Noel falls in and out  of love with three sisters - all out of his  league.  

cover blurb - Niall Williams gives us  a tender portrait of a community - its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs - with a tender coming of age story. 

I enjoyed the writing  - Williams' Irish lilt and his meandering ways all lend a charm.  Not a lot really happens and that's okay.  It's just the journey and time spent in  town - the gossip, the silences, the "scandal", and the time going to church, discussing church, avoiding church, and hoping the  rains come again.  That is happiness.  

Whatever Wednesday - Book Club Delight

 My PA gang held our book club meeting in Florida, even though the story - History of the  Rain by Niall Williams - takes place in Ireland.  (Well, it did rain in FL, so that counts. )

We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. That's how it seems to me, being alive for a little while, the teller and the told.   (back blurb)

Ruthie Swain is the  daughter of a dead poet. She's living in FaHa, County Clare, and recovering from a collapse in college. She's in  her attic room, with the rain rushing down the windows. She writes Ireland, with its weather, its rivers, its lilts, and its lows. 

I loved Ruthie. I loved all her references to her dad's books as she puzzles her way through family history. She's a twin, and slowly tells Aeny's joyous short life.  I laughed out loud at her descriptions of town folk. I teared up at other writings - p. 311  But  the fact is grief doesn't know we invented time. Grief has its own tide and comes and goes in waves.  

Williams writes lyrically, humorously, and with a passion for Ireland - its quirks, its people, and its rain. That's  a character itself. I loved this book - it meanders, it goes off  on a bender, and it's gentle. 

Take your time,  find a comfy  chair, pour a cuppa, and settle in for History of the Rain. Let the words pour over you and enjoy.