A beautifully written memoir-in-essays on fairy tales and their
surprising relevance to modern life, from a Jewish woman raising Black
children in the American South--based on her acclaimed Paris Review
column "Happily"
"One of the most inventive, phenomenally executed books I've read in
decades."--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
The literary tradition of the fairy tale has long endured as the vehicle
by which we interrogate the laws of reality. These fantastical stories,
populated with wolves, kings, and wicked witches, have throughout
history served as a template for understanding culture, society, and
that muddy terrain we call our collective human psyche. In Happily,
Sabrina Orah Mark reimagines the modern fairy tale, turning it inside
out and searching it for the wisdom to better understand our
contemporary moment in what Mark so incisively calls "this strange
American weather."
Set against the backdrop of political upheaval, viral plague, social
protest, and climate change, Mark locates the magic in the mundane and
illuminates the surreality of life as we know it today. She grapples
with a loss of innocence in "Sorry, Peter Pan, We're Over You," when her
son decides he would rather dress up as Martin Luther King, Jr., than
Peter Pan for Halloween. In "The Evil Stepmother," Mark finds unlikely
communion with wicked wives and examines the roots of their bad
reputation. And in "Rapunzel, Draft One Thousand," the hunt for a
wigmaker in a time of unprecedented civil unrest forces Mark to finally
confront her sister's cancer diagnosis and the stories we tell ourselves
to get by.
Revelatory, whimsical, and utterly inspired, Happily is a testament to
the singularity of Sabrina Orah Mark's voice and the power of the
fantastical to reveal essential truths about life, love, and the meaning
of family.
