Book Review: The Happy Valley
Reviewed by Nathaniel Drenner
A thought-provoking exploration of the past, the future, and the worlds we construct for ourselves
Early in Benjamin Harnett's The Happy Valley, the first-person narrator recalls his youth on "the farm"—not an actual farm but a farmhouse repurposed for summertime child care in his upstate New York hometown. It is the sort of place that may bring to mind an idyllic childhood: woods to explore, ponds for swimming, lemonade and popsicles and PB&J for lunch, well-worn architecture to spark the imagination. On a rainy day it's also the perfect atmosphere for "the game," a Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing adventure concocted by the narrator and his friends.
"…[W]e rinsed ourselves of clay and mud, gathered up the towels, made our way up the shoulder of earth to the railing, still hot in the sun. We felt equal parts relief, for it was exhausting, and sadness, for every leaving was like another exile from Eden, as we trudged back to the farm. Gradually as swimsuit and hair dried, as the whole earth warmed and was suffused by light, you got to feeling settled and content again."
The game becomes a club, really a clique, played at the school library when summer is over. Like all things youthful, their interest fades over time—but the influence lasts longer, the significance becomes greater.
With the introduction of an enterprising young girl, a mysterious key, and a secret room, there is a new mystery to explore in the real world. Not all is as it seems, in the farmhouse and elsewhere.
All this is told in retrospect. We learn from the opening sentence that the narrator lives in our near-future, shortly after a revolution has upended the social order of the United States. This speculative setting stands largely in the background, foregrounded but not upstaged by the narrator's reconstruction of his past.
June, the aforementioned young girl, became his friend then his on-again, off-again romantic partner through adulthood. Eventually, she disappears. The narrator's attempt to find her unravels her life story, exploring how it intersects with his own.
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