This Is Happiness - Niall Williams - A Short Summary and Review

This Is Happiness - Niall Williams - A Short Summary and Review

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review

Electricity comes to Faha, but it's Christy's past that truly lights up the town.

A short summary:

"Electricity comes with Christy to Faha." With that arrival, both light and change come to a small Irish village suspended between the old world and the modern one. Niall Williams's This Is Happiness unfolds through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe, who has recently left the seminary and returned to his grandmother's home in Faha, a place where rain seems constant and time moves slowly.

Christy, an older man with secrets of his own, arrives ahead of the coming of electricity, charged with helping to wire the town. As he and Noel work together, Christy's past begins to surface, a story of love lost and sought again. Through their friendship, Noel learns about the ache and wonder of being alive, about forgiveness, and about how moments of beauty often hide in the most ordinary days.

Rich with lyrical prose and gentle humor, This Is Happiness is both a love letter to rural Ireland and a meditation on memory, change, and the small sparks (literal and emotional) that illuminate our lives.

My favorite Niall Williams quote from the book:

"We all have to find a story to live by and live inside, or we couldn't endure the certainty of suffering."

Questions to ponder while reading:

Do you have a past?

Do you reject change?

My review:

Beautifully descriptive. Wonderfully vibrant. Leisurely in its flow.

Niall Williams paints the village of Faha with such tenderness and precision that every page feels steeped in rain, memory, and music. His prose is lyrical, almost meditative, inviting the reader to slow down and savor the rhythm of small-town life, the quiet humor of its people, and the bittersweet beauty of change. This Is Happiness isn’t a story to rush through; it’s one to drift inside, to feel, and to remember long after the last page.

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a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller living in Tonitown, Arkansas. 

In addition to her travel writings at www.takethebackroads.com, you can also read her book reviews at www.riteoffancy.com and US military biographies at www.everydaypatriot.com

Her online photography gallery can be found at shop.takethebackroads.com

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