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Title details for Happily by Sabrina Orah Mark - Available

Happily

A Personal History-with Fairy Tales

by Sabrina Orah Mark
Gilli Messer
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • 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
FINALIST FOR THE SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE

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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 14, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593677599
      • File size: 147442 KB
      • Duration: 05:07:10

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 14, 2022
      People turn to fairy tales because they want to understand the “muddy terrain of the human psyche,” writes poet and Paris Review columnist Mark (Wild Milk) in her probing memoir-in-essays. Mark uses fairy tales as framing devices to unpack a range of topics including motherhood, marriage, racism, and mortality. When thinking about how to protect her Black Jewish sons from racism and anti-Semitism, she turns to Pinocchio’s Geppetto, who “in the world of fairy tales” is “the mother of all mothers.” Bluebeard’s wives offer a way to parse the “many lives” Mark’s husband had before they married (he has two ex wives). Tom Thumb, the boy who is “caught inside a swallow cycle,” reminds Mark that she fears this “dear, sick country” will swallow her sons, and Rapunzel’s long hair prompts her to think about her 20-year-old sister, who was diagnosed with cancer and needs a wig. Mark’s sharp analysis captures the “cultural resilience” of fairy tales, and her writing hums with lyrical self-reflection (“I was the rattle-ghost that disrupted my friend’s kingdom”). Readers will find this full of insight. Agent: Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Gilli Messer is a mesmerizing narrator of this dazzling collection of autobiographical essays. Between the essays are conversations with the author's mother. Messer expertly differentiates the author's sometimes plaintive and writerly tone from Mark's mother's matter-of-fact delivery. Messer is also spot-on with the Hebrew phrases sprinkled through the work. Mark details the complexity of her unique family, which, besides herself, includes two sons of an African American father and Jewish mother. The author is painstakingly self-reflective, yet when she brings the expositions of fairy tales into her pieces, she can sound incantatory. Mark's poetic prose and mystery-laden accounts are animated by great fairy-tale characters such as Pinocchio, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and many others. A rewarding listening experience. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Gilli Messer's airy narration softens Mark's (Wild Milk) unconventional collection of fairy tale analysis and autobiographical essays. The works were originally published in The Paris Review. Mark frames each chapter with a vignette about her family. As a Jewish mother raising two Black sons in Georgia, she worries about their youth and their future when news stories of anti-Semitism and racism increase. In these essays, she links Pinocchio and Peter Pan with references from Judaism and literary criticisms. When two of her family members get cancer, Mark segues to The Juniper Tree and Rapunzel to explain mortality and her emotions at the time. Messer's warm, comforting voice soothes the harsh realities of each situation. As Mark's real life becomes bleaker during the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the fairy tales become more anecdotal. Messer's intonations glide through these sections, especially where the vignettes blend with magical realism. Messer also voices Mark's mother, who adds a practical spin to several scenarios. She delightfully lowers her vocal register to sound like a New Yorker who has seen and heard it all. VERDICT The audiobook's hybrid of truth and tale may give some listeners pause. Give to those who enjoy eccentric, lyrical nonfiction.--Anjelica Rufus-Barnes

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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