Nerdette Book Club: Angie Kim on ‘Happiness Falls’
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.6 • 924 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our selection this month is Angie Kim’s sophomore novel, 'Happiness Falls.' It’s narrated by Mia, a whip smart college student who moves back under her parents’ roof during the early days of COVID. This isn’t a pandemic novel, though, as much as lockdown is used as a device to bring everyone together and move the plot forward.
One day, Mia’s younger brother Eugene, a teenager with autism who doesn’t speak, shows up at home after a walk without his dad, Adam. No one knows where Adam went, and no one can believe he’d desert his family. As the family investigates, they learn Adam was keeping a number of secrets, some of which have astounding repercussions for everyone.
We talk to the author about writing a propulsive plot that also deals with big ideas, like disability, ableism, and the immigrant experience. Read along with us and send a voice memo with your thoughts to NerdettePodcast@gmail.com! We’ll be back the last Tuesday of the month for a spoiler-filled conversation with two guest readers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still |
| 0:06.1 | watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you, |
| 0:12.7 | soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making, |
| 0:18.0 | Stories Without End from WBEZ Chicago. Join me as I share how the genre |
| 0:22.3 | began, their social impact, and why these stories endure. Listen wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:30.6 | WB.EZ is supported by Chicago Humanities, presenting its spring festival on April 27th in Lakeview |
| 0:37.0 | with historians Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder, |
| 0:40.6 | Jonathan Blitzer on Immigration, |
| 0:42.7 | University of Chicago Professor Agnes Collard on Socrates, |
| 0:46.2 | and documentaries Unblocked Englewood by Chicago's Tanika Lewis Johnson, |
| 0:50.8 | and Beyond Closure on the 2013 Chicago Public School closures. |
| 0:55.0 | Tickets and more conversations on arts, culture, and current affairs at |
| 0:59.2 | chicagohumanities.org. |
| 1:05.5 | From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson, and this is the Nerdat Book Club. |
| 1:10.4 | It's just like a regular book club, except sometimes the author stops by. I'm Greta Johnson, and this is the Nerd Out Book Club. It's just like a regular |
| 1:11.3 | book club, except sometimes the author stops by. I am so excited to tell you about our September |
| 1:17.4 | pick. It is Angie Kim's second novel, Happiness Falls, which is by far one of my favorite books |
| 1:23.7 | from the year. It takes place during the social distancing days of the pandemic, but it is not |
| 1:29.5 | a quote unquote COVID novel. Instead, the fact that everyone is stuck at home is kind of just the |
| 1:34.3 | perfect equation for propelling the action of the story. It is told from the point of view of Mia, |
| 1:40.3 | who's home from college during lockdown, back under the same roof with her twin brother John |
| 1:44.8 | and their younger brother Eugene, who has autism and is nonverbal. And one day, Eugene comes home early |
... |
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