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Scribner
September 2011
On Sale: August 23, 2011
256 pages
ISBN: 1439101280
EAN: 9781439101285
Hardcover
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Fiction
While waiting in line for apple pie at a party, Imogene
Gilfeather, a lingerie designer who does not understand the
reason for romance, meets Wally Yez, a scientist whose
business card says “An Answer for Everything.” Imogene is
told that Wally is the perfect guy. (“Perfect,” she replies,
“is not my type.”) He is told that her company, Featherware,
manufactures intimates (that gets his attention). Unfazed by
Imogene’s indifference (who needs love when you have a
career, friends, and an undemanding affair with a married
man?), Wally resolves to win her over. E-mails turn into
late-night phone calls; one date turns into two and then
into more. Thus begins the most absurd and amusingly
unbalanced relationship to grace the pages of a novel. Wally is certain he and Imogene are meant for each other
(They both use mechanical pencils! Neither has had mumps!
They are so alike!), but convincing his beloved is another
matter. (“Do you know why it is I don’t have pierced ears?”
she asks. “Because it’s too permanent.”) In defiance of the
odds, or the gods, or perhaps just Imogene’s qualms, Wally
and Imogene become a pair. They celebrate their
anniversaries—the first time they touched each other on
purpose, took public transportation together, saw the other
with wet hair. But can they possibly end as happily as
they’ve begun? (“Does he really have a cowlick? If yes, no
bed will ever be big enough.”) Made up of hundreds of chaplettes, clever illustrations, and
darkly funny commentary on getting together and staying the
course, Starting from Happy is a cunning and sophisticated
send-up of coupledom that showcases one of the finest comic
writers of our time.
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