"I'm So Happy for You"

Lucinda Rosenfeld’s first novel, What She Saw... was published in 2000 by Random House. It was excerpted in The New Yorker, and optioned by Miramax Films. In 2004, she published a sequel called Why She Went Home. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times magazine, Creative Non-Fiction, Glamour, and Slate. Currently, Rosenfeld writes the “friendship advice” column, Friend or Foe, for doublex.com.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, I'm So Happy for You, and reported the following:

On Page 69 of I'm So Happy for You, the main character, Wendy, recounts how her best friend and nemesis, Daphne, introduced her (Wendy) to her now-husband, Adam. The page is actually very representative of the book, insofar as Wendy’s love/hate relationship with Daphne--the crux of the novel--is on full display. On the one hand, Wendy is thankful to Daphne for the introduction. (“... Daphne had done Wendy the biggest favor that a friend could do; hadn’t she?”) On the other, Wendy is suspicious of the way in which Daphne herself meets and commandeers the attention of Adam, in the middle of a crowded apartment party. (“Somehow, only Daphne had managed to move freely.”) She also feels unhappily indebted to Daphne. (“And yet, over the years, Wendy had come to resent the fact that Daphne had found her a husband. It gave her too much power....”) Finally, the page provides a window into Wendy’s and Adam’s increasingly shaky marriage. (“From the beginning, there had been an immediate connection between her and Adam—a shared misanthropy laced with humor and longing. Was that it?”) Close readers will note the oblique suggestion that Wendy’s attraction to Adam is at least partly due to the fact that he comes “pre-approved” by Daphne. As for whether readers will be inclined to read on, all I can say is: I hope so! The Los Angeles Times recently called I'm So Happy for You a “... rare page-turner: No one is murdered and no time bombs tick--just a friendship going to seed in the moneyed coliseum of New York City yuppiedom.” I can also promise that the ending reads like a thriller--because I wrote it that way!

Read an excerpt from I'm So Happy for You, and learn more about the book and author at Lucinda Rosenfeld's website and blog.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue