Reconsidering Happiness

To break off an affair with a married man, 23-year-old Vivette takes her grandfather's Buick and drives away from her home in Portsmouth, N.H., heading for Des Moines, Iowa, for no other reason than the attraction of its two silent “s”s. On the way she spends a week in Nebraska with Margaret, who Vivette met when they both worked at the Penhallow Bakery in Portsmouth. Margaret, who also fled heartbreak, is married now and settled down, and Vivette seeks “pointers” on life in the Great Plains. From chapter to chapter, the story shifts between Vivette and Margaret and between the past and present, gradually revealing the details of their involvement with the untrustworthy men they left behind. In her descriptions of food, the Nebraskan landscape, and the rhythms of work at a tourist town bakery, Flick indulges in sensual detail with pleasurable results. But the novel lacks drama; Vivette and Margaret have little to do but ruminate on happiness and their past waywardness. Later chapters revealing the current circumstances of their former lovers adds little insight. (Sept.)