Happiness Falls

Happiness Falls, Angie Kim, author; Angie Kim, Shannon Tyo, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Thomas Pruyn, narrators
At first glance, I wondered, is Happiness Falls a place, a waterfall, a tourist attraction? Did the title mean happiness was diminishing or was it a place of happiness? As I began to read, I learned that Adam Parson was conducting experiments to determine happiness levels. Were those with the least expectations, the least stressed, thus, the happiest? Did those with the lowest aspirations ever achieve higher goals or did they reach for the sky anyway? Could low expectations bring greater happiness without the loss of achieving those higher goals? Was it possible to measure happiness and reactions in numerical terms to gauge them?
Adam show more Parson was a house husband since his wife Hannah had returned to work. Every morning, he would hike to River Falls Park with his son Eugene. Eugene suffered from Angelman Syndrome and Autism. Angelman Syndrome was passed on genetically. Eugene could not speak and was not well coordinated which led to his having uncoordinated movements. He often jumped continuously to relieve his stress. He smiled a lot and sometimes laughed and screamed at inappropriate times while looking very happy. His facial expressions often had nothing to do with his emotional response. How happy was he?
Hannah, Eugene’s mother, was a Korean immigrant. She still spoke with an accent. She was now the major breadwinner and Adam was the major caregiver to the three children, Eugene, fourteen-years-old, and Mia and John who were 20-year-old fraternal twins. The twins were also suspected of having some neurological impairment. John might be suffering from mild ADHD. Mia was suspected of having Aspergers. John was the more conciliatory twin, easier to get along with, and more socially adept. Mia was highly intelligent, had a black boyfriend, Vic, and was always thinking, analyzing, and questioning everything. She was very intelligent, but often jumped to the wrong conclusions. Mia is the narrator of this story.
On June 23, 2020, Mia observed her brother running helter-skelter down the street, oblivious to the traffic, and actually causing a car crash. His sudden appearance startled her. Eugene should not have been alone, because no one thought he would be able to find his way back home. Mia knew that her father would never have left him, and therefore, she assumed he would soon appear behind him. That assumption interfered with the initiation of an investigation into her father’s whereabouts. Adam Parson never came home and was declared officially missing. Because Eugene came home muddy and bloody, but could not tell anyone what had happened, Mia understood he could be a suspect. He would not be able to communicate and explain. Once again, she interfered in the investigation. She told him to clean up and she washed his clothing. She believed she was doing the right thing, but was she? Was she hiding evidence that might have helped to find her dad? Was she protecting her brother at all costs, regardless of the condition of her dad? How far would you go in similar circumstances. Mia’s mom Hannah, and her brother John, also hoped to protect Eugene, believing he was incapable of helping himself. He was the last person to be with his father, and he was panicked. As the only person that could explain what had happened, the situation was difficult and dangerous for him. Did he deliberately harm his father? Was he a danger to himself and others? Did law enforcement and social services behave appropriately when questioning him?
When a video seemed to indicate that Adam, Eugene and Eugene’s new speech therapist, Anjeli Rapari, were at the park together on that fateful day, the conspiracy theories exploded. Who was Anjeli Rapari? She and Adam appeared to be missing together. Were they having an affair? Had Adam run away with her? Would whatever happened in the park on that fateful day point to Eugene‘s involvement in violence, or would it exonerate him? Could Eugene have hurt his father in frustration or anger or disappointment? There were so many uncovered secrets that it was hard to come to a logical answer. Misdirection, misperceptions, misconceptions, misunderstandings, misjudgments, and mistakes, seemed to be the order of the day. Everyone, the family, the detectives, the social services were all jumping to different conclusions. Finally, Shannon, the lawyer, seemed to be able to analyze the situation logically and laid out her ideas on how to proceed to best protect Eugene. They were so concerned about Eugene that they put Adam on the back burner. Would they be happy if he was no longer a suspect? Would they then focus on Adam? How would they feel if he was found? Here was a real-life example of Adam’s very study of the idea of a happiness quotient.
The Idea of measuring emotional responses to determine happiness was not the only theme in this novel. Race relations and immigration issues were also front and center since Adam was white and Hannah was Korean. The acceptance of those who were different was also a major theme. Mia, John and Eugene were biracial. They also suffered from various ranges of neurological disorders or learning disabilities and were subject to being bullied. LGBTQ+ issues were also included. Anjeli’s fiancée was Zoe, a female. Interracial relationships were raised since Mia’s boyfriend Vic was black. Then there was the issue of civil rights and freedom of speech, since Eugene’s speech impairment impeded the investigation. How should it be conducted to represent him fairly? In addition, speech was sometimes abused by Mia who spoke too much and often too sharply, putting her foot in her mouth with no way to take back her words or their implications. Hannah spoke with an accent, and was subject to ridicule. Anjeli, who spoke with a gentleness that didn’t threaten was the least stressful of the characters pointing out the importance of the nuances of speech.
Oddly, the Covid pandemic which has caused so much angst in our school system, delaying learning because of mandated isolation, actually worked in Eugene’s favor, which in its own way also illustrated how determining a quotient for happiness was situational. In this case, the isolation was appreciated, not resented. Since no one could socialize and everyone was trapped and locked up within themselves, in their homes or in their facilities, the way Eugene was trapped in his own mind, the investigation was delayed causing great relief. The pandemic actually exposed everyone to the terrible feeling of being lonely and silenced, unable to communicate ideas or feelings, unable to let anyone know that you were, indeed, alive and well inside your body, feeling sad or happy, disappointed or frustrated, in pain or pain-free, comfortable or experiencing discomfort. Intubation of the suffering victims took their ability to speak, as well.
After reading this book, I realized that the people who have difficulty communicating are truly trapped in their own body, but they are also trapped in and by the world around them because of how everyone treats them and because they are wrongfully judged to be less than, to be unfit to function, to lack cognizance. They are looked at as substandard. They are spoken to like children, talked down to if they are mute or non-communicative. The person who is trapped inside their own body may be frustrated, possibly angry, but is unable to explain how they feel, and few people have the patience to try and understand how they feel. They want to be heard. They want to be noticed. The want the world to know that they are here, but is anyone paying attention? Is anyone listening?
Did Eugene hurt his father? He could not say. If he did cause harm, did he understand the situation? Does the system treat disabled people with respect or fairly? I was consumed with questions. For instance, have you ever felt that no one was listening to you or hearing you speak? Did you scream out in frustration? How would that be different from how Eugene felt? Did the screaming diminish the anger? How would you feel if you were ignored or misunderstood constantly? Have you ever felt the need to move, to run from your own thoughts? I thought about how painful it must be to feel as if you are being treated as if you were invisible while those around you engaged in conversation. The emotional pain must be devastating. I thought about stroke victims and those suffering from other disorders that make them appear different, like Cerebral Palsy sufferers, catastrophically wounded warriors, etc. Is the go-to belief that they are incapable of communication and without intelligence? Are they considered to be “less than”? Can this book shine a light on that behavior and bring about change? What if we took the time to hear you, though you are communicating without words, to understand how you feel and stopped treating you like an empty vessel and tried to recognize and accept the thinking being inside your silent body?
Then, there was the question about mind melding. Do twins have that special gift? I am the female half of a set of fraternal twins, and I don’t know if our minds melded, but I do know that there was a connection. My brother and I always seemed to know when one of us was ill or needed help. When my brother was missing, I found him, and to this day, I do not understand how I managed to stop in front of the very building where he, homeless, was allowed to sleep in empty apartments, temporarily, because of the Super’s kindness. Was that a mind meld? Was it ESP? Was it the hand of G-d? Whatever it was, it was unusual. There was definitely a connection between us. Did John and Mia have that connection? Could it have extended to Eugene, as well, enabling him to know their thoughts?
Will the recent Covid pandemic, and the often-catastrophic results of jumping to conclusions for all the wrong reasons, illustrate how frustrating and dangerous loneliness and isolation can be? Will the cancel culture finally come to an end before it destroys society? Is it possible to learn a better way to deal with those who have disabilities or those who are different, or with those who have alternate ideas? Can we be more loving, open and accepting? So far, it doesn’t seem to be the result of all we have suffered. Political views are dominating society and are often harmful to the very people in society the politicians are trying to protect. Will those in social services, the media, the schools, in internet services and law enforcement be more carefully trained to help those who cannot help themselves or will we still be at war with each other in one way or another? We know what is wrong, but are we willing to solve and correct our approach to each other?
The drawback of the book is that it sometimes stretched credulity. show less

"We didn't call the police right away," Mia tells us from the get-go. On that fateful day when her father went missing, her brother Eugene came running back from the park where he was hiking with her father, shoving Mia down on his way to the house. Then, she thought, her father returned as well, but by the time she figures out the mistake, he's been missing for hours.

What starts out as a missing persons investigation shifts focus when it becomes clear to Mia, her mother, Hannah, and her twin brother, John, that Eugene is the prime suspect in her father's disappearance. He has both autism and Angelman's, and is unable to communicate what happened on the hike. As the family tries to piece events together while protecting Eugene from an show more overzealous police officer, they come to learn their own biases and misunderstandings about each other. Narrator Mia, a twenty-year-old college student home during the COVID shutdown, reflects on events in her hyperverbal way, including footnotes for some of her tangents. Ultimately, she asks how well we can know another person and what it means when we humans tend to equate verbal acuity with intelligence. show less

One thing I've noticed about my 2023 reading year is that I've gotten pretty good at guessing whether I'm going to like a book or not before I read it. This book was a reminder that I'm not perfect at that skill, though. I picked it up skeptical that it would live up to the hype since I'm not super into murder mysteries, and put it down thinking it might be my favorite book of the year. It's not just that Kim masterfully constructs the story, adding new layers to consider at the perfect times. It's full of fascinating insights on happiness, living with special needs, and being Korean American—all while the characters are trying to solve a mystery during a pandemic. I ended up loving Mia's narration, too. I'm just going to say it: this show more book is flawless. I'm glad I gave it a chance. show less

This canny mystery turns out to be less a mystery and more of a philosophical treatise and a dive into family, duty, and the value of ambiguity, something many of us struggle with every day.

Briefly, the mystery is set in Covid times (but it is not about Covid) with a hyper-intelligent and engaged family thrown together when the 20-year-old twins return from college for lockdown. The third sibling has Angelman's Syndrome and autism and is non-speaking. One day he goes out for a hike with their father and returns home alone, extremely distressed and with blood under his nails. The book is built around the search for their husband/father. There are many twists and turns and subplots but you should read it to learn about those things. Kim show more is brilliant in a number of ways, but not least of all in how clearly she understands people who are like her, and also people who are not like her. There are some very good writers who understand their own motivations and actions well enough to write excellent characters who are like them, but there are far fewer who get the right people whose motivations and life experiences are very different from their own. Kim belongs to that rare and humbling second group.

The book touches on many issues of racism and ableism since they impact everyone's choices here and Kim does this with a blessedly deft touch. This book is not about racism and ableism, but it also is not exactly not about those things since everyone's psyches are touched by those forces and they impact many assumptions, actions and inactions. One cool thing Kim does is put the explication of racist and ableist beliefs and actions in footnotes with a thorough but brief explanation. This works surprisingly well and tells us so much about everyone's choices without getting in the way of the central story. This is masterful. I did not read Kim's first book but it has been on my TBR. I need to get to that soon. I am very impressed. show less

Does happiness fall? That's the way I started thinking about this novel, the second after Angie Kim's intricately plotted Miracle Creek. This story is similarly dense, here focussing on the Parson/Park (the kids are the Parksons) family. One of the kids, Mia of the Mia/John fraternal twin pair is our 20-year-old narrator. And she starts with a bang: "We didn't tell the police right away."

With that fairly electric first line, we're off. Turns out that the dad, Adam, has gone missing. He'd gone to the park as usual with Eugene, the 14-year-old brother who has both autism and Angelman syndrome and cannot talk. So what happened? That is the crux of the matter.

Now this is a slightly unusual family. Mom Hannah, Korean-born, is a linguist. Dad show more Adam, American-born, is a corporate higher-up who has been delving deeply into psycho-social studies and 'happiness research' for lack of a better term. And the story takes these two major themes and weaves them in with the conditions Eugene lives with, how it affects the family, and what it has to do with the disappearance. Adam's notes are discovered early on: seems he's been....conducting experiements on the family? (To analyze the effect of various factors on happiness, but still.) Then Mia herself is verbose and sticks footnotes copiously through her narration. One doesn't have to read these, but I did and they didn't bother me as it might do for some readers. And that heavy foreshadowing! Couldn't you have left out all those ominous warnings, girl?

However. As well-executed as all this was, I began to get the uncomfortable feeling that what I was reading was not entirely fiction. Being alienated for not speaking Korean while living for a few years there as children; the automatic association of lower intelligence with certain accents; even the episodes of Eugene's therapists and his various meltdowns; casual racism towards black people in the U.S.: all this felt too on the nose, as though I were reading a real account of a family's toughest times. I began to wonder if there were just one too many threads here. That I couldn't work out which one could have been dispensed with is a testament to the author's skill, I suppose.

Then I read that author's note at the end. And sure enough some of my doubts were validated. I am still glad I read this, just that the subject matter almost felt theoretical in some sense, a bit of a slog. Nevertheless, Happiness Falls is a worthy work. I had to wait a long time for the library to loan me a copy and I'm glad I waited. show less

When I was a teenager I heard my grandmother talk about a neighbors whose wife was unable to move or talk, and they had no idea if she was mentally normal. He parked her in front of the television when he left for work. That terrified me, the idea that someone could be mentally normal but unable to communicate or move. (It also terrified me to think of being forced to watch daytime tv all day long.)

Angie Kim’s new novel Happiness Falls is a mystery and a family drama concerning the disappearance of the father, a son who cannot communicate the only witness. For Eugene’s mosaic Angelman syndrome means he is unable to talk, and he has motor difficulties, the fixed smile on his face giving no clue to his feelings.

Father Adam and mother show more Hannah came to odds over the false hope of Eugene learning to communicate, leading to Adam becoming a stay-at-home dad and Hannah returning to her career.

Twins Mia and John are nothing alike. They take after different parents, so a teacher thought Mia was Asian and John was Caucasian. John is an optimist, easier to like. Mia is a sceptic, logical, snarky.

Every day, Adam took Eugene for a walk in a park. One day, Eugene ran back home alone, distraught, blood on his clothes. Adam was nowhere to be found.

Secrets come out that bring doubt about Adam’s activities. Mia is especially interested in her father’s notebook discussing what he called the Happiness Quotient, a scientific exploration of how people’s optimism or pessimism affects their happiness level under differing situations.

When the police arrest Eugene, the family has to work fast to try to understand what happened on the walk near the Falls. What they learn is shocking and life-changing for them all.

What sets this book apart is Mia’s delving into the Happiness Quotient and exploring philosophical questions, and its addressing issues of communication. The family experience includes Hannah adjusting as a non-English speaking immigrant, and the family spending time in Korea where Mia felt categorized as an idiot for not speaking Korean. Eugene is presumed to be child-like in his mental development because he can’t communicate.

In the Author’s Note, Kim warns that we should not judge people based on their external appearance, nor should we judge people’s intelligence by their verbal skills, something she experienced as a young immigrant to America.

Yes, the passages from Adam’s notebook slow the book down, but this is not a page-turner, plot-driven beach read. Narrated by Mia, we see the story unravel through a complicated series of revelations that engage us, while he grappling with larger issues informs and elevates us.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. show less

This story, 'narrated by Korean-American Mia is hard to categorise. A young adult, she lives with her parents, her twin brother John and her younger brother Eugene who is both autistic and a sufferer from a rare genetic disorder, Angelman syndrome which leaves him unable to communicate verbally, and with severe motor control difficulties. Mia is very bright, very intense, very prone to careful analysis and scattering her writing with footnotes. She recounts the family drama in which her father disappears while in the park with Eugene, who arrives home bloodied and distressed. Of course the police get involved. This is the account of the conflicting priorities of the police, the family, their bright and sympathetic lawyer Shannon, which show more Mia carefully details and analyses, while commenting on research uncovered by the Police search into her father's study of happiness. It's complex, high octane stuff. And while I probably wouldn't survive for ten minutes in Mia's company face to face, she's an engaging, thoughtful narrator with a passion for forensic detail and analysis. We learn a lot about Mia herself, and her relationships within her family. We learn about Eugene and about his condition. Provocative, heartfelt, compelling: it's also left me thinking about issues connected with neurodiversity in a way I've never previously been forced to. show less