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What Makes Women Happy
by Fay Weldon
Chicago Review Press
ISBN 1-55652-681-4
Published April 2007 - Hardcover - 229 pages - $18.95

Ah, the eternal question: "What makes us happy?"  For me, the question is, "What is happiness?"  I've not read Fay Weldon's work (maybe a book extract here and there in a magazine) so I have no clue where she's coming from with this book.  The title caught my eye, and because it is non-fiction, I grabbed it.  Ms. Weldon is funny it turns out, and easy to read.  Her observations (made easier because she's a woman) of what we women want, are spot-on and humorous.  She tells it like it is and more than a few of us will recognize ourselves in these pages, if we are brave enough to own up to some of her "instances".  She starts off referring to our animal and early man instincts and compares them to the here and now with ease and aplomb.  I loved, "It is also, alas, part of the male impulse to leave the family as soon as the unit can survive without him and go off and create another.  (Now that so many women can get by perfectly well without men, the surprise is that men stay around at all.)"  I had to laugh.  She talks about all of our stumbling blocks and how we sabotage ourselves.  Who really knows what we need to make us happy?  It changes from one generation to the next, right?  There have to be just a few constant basics.  There just have to be.  She also includes quite a bit of sex, our constant worry about everything else but the task at hand, our need for planning, our insecurities, guilt, food and weight issues, family, and friends.  All pretty observational and much truth in her writing.  Much of it will make you want to take a good look at yourself.
Conclusion - A good chuckle and a fun read.