A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Library
Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight
This post contains spoilers for Emily Henry’s Funny Story.
I didn’t love Happy Place when I read it last year, and I haven’t had a chance to go back and read it again to see if it might have grown on me like mold. But I do keep going back to what Emily Henry said in her interview with Jessica Leon for Entertainment Weekly - that her intention for Happy Place was “really trying to give [her] readers permission for happiness.” She wanted them to know that it was ok to change their minds and allow themselves to be happy. When I initially read Happy Place, I felt like it missed the mark on that, with Harriet quitting her medical school residency to just go live with Wyn. Giving it all up for a man just didn’t sit right with me.
Funny Story is a redemption arc for that intention. At the beginning of the novel, Daphne is certain what’s going to make her happy is running away from the hot mess disaster of her broken off engagement, after her fiancé Peter left her for the best friend he told Daphne not to worry about, right before the wedding. Daphne had uprooted her whole life to move to Waning Bay, Michigan with him, leaving behind her friends and career to live in a house that only had his name on the mortgage. So after he informs her of his revelation abut the best friend, Petra, she realizes she has nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and no idea what she’s going to do. That is until Petra’s boyfriend Miles shows up at the door, looking for Petra, and happens to have an extra bedroom.
This book really spoke to the library kid that I was and the library adult I still am. There was a brief mention in passing of changing the library displays in the kids section and I immediately envisioned all the wonderful displays that I’ve seen over the years in the various children’s sections. The way that children’s books and authors are mentioned put the book firmly in the current zeitgeist (Hi, Jeff Kinney! IDK how Greg is still in middle school after almost 20 years) but also pays homage to the enduring classics like The Stinky Cheese Man, which is one of my perennial favorites. The small details Henry puts in her books, especially this one, are just so perfectly immersive.
I also appreciate how Henry’s characters struggle with situations and challenges that feel realistic. As much as I would love for the upcoming rodeo to bring me a hot, progressive cowboy who isn’t addicted to nicotine and has a beautiful family ranch and is definitely not living the plot of “Amarillo By Morning,” I know that’s unlikely. Have Lyla Sage and Elsie Silver given me a little bit of false hope? Absolutely. But I live in a rodeo town year round and interact with those folks fairly regularly and the dip can back pocket circle and right wing politics are nearly ubiquitous (but hey, real life Luke Brooks if you’re out there and you don’t mind that I’m allergic to horses, please feel free to sweep me off my feet when you see me snorting Claritin at the rodeo next month).
Henry’s characters are not cowboys, they have real life normal people jobs like children’s librarians and bartenders and sometimes they’re writers or agents, but it never feels like a fantasy. I don’t feel like I’m watching a frosted cake version of peoples lives where rodeo stars and billionaires are a dime a dozen. And I think a lot of that is because the challenges faced by the characters feel like challenges anyone could face, regardless of their career or where in the country they live, because they are challenges in relationships with others - romantic, familial, and platonic.
Both Daphne and Miles struggle with the damage done by their parents in childhood - Daphne by her father and Miles by his mother. Daphne’s father was about as absent as they come, without being totally out of the picture, showing up intermittently and not sticking around for long, if he even showed up at all, often asking Daphne’s mom for money in the meantime. Miles’ mother isn’t explicitly said to be a narcissist or any given any other clinical diagnosis, but exhibits a great many of the behaviors, such as requiring constant admiration and turning extremely volatile when she feels she is being criticized or when things are not revolving around her. So both kids ended up pretty messed up when it comes to relationships with others.
It’s really compelling to see the male character be a people pleaser who has to overcome the trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms he developed, since I feel like so often it’s female characters who are typecast and pigeonholed into that flavor of character development. Daphne meanwhile is struggling to let people in, the fear of abandonment and not being good enough causing her to push others away or remain distant. Both Daphne and Miles have to discover that they are lovable as they are, and that the right people will love them without stipulation.
In terms of supporting characters, Henry is back again with the best single mom representation. Having been raised by a single mom I of course have a soft spot for them in romances, just like my soft spot for older sisters. And I really love that Funny Story has double representation - Daphne’s mom Holly and Daphne’s friend Ashleigh, who has split custody of her son Mulder with her ex-husband Duke. I like the representation of both a mom truly doing it on her own with no assistance from her spouse (Daphne’s Mom) and the coparenting done by Ashleigh and Duke. Ashleigh talks about why the marriage didn’t work out, but doesn’t bear too much ill will toward him, if any at all. She just wanted more, just like Daphne wants more.
I loved that Daphne says she needs to be her own person too. She acknowledges that she loves Miles, and he loves her, but the initial problem in the story was that she folded herself so completely into Peter’s world that she lost herself in it, and when it was all taken away from her it felt like her life had completely collapsed, and that she had no identity outside of that relationship. I love love and the idea that love conquers all, but I love that Daphne learned from her mistakes more, and that she isn’t closing herself off to love, but rather putting herself in a better position to love and be loved as safely as on possibly could, when one’s heart is on the line. That’s where the big difference between Funny Story and Happy Place lies for me - in Happy Place it felt like Harriet was throwing it all away for a man, but in Funny Story it feels like the man is just one more wonderful aspect of the life Daphne has built for herself, among the career and the friends and the sense of belonging she’s found.
At their cores, all of Emily Henry’s books are about not settling. Not settling for men who aren’t right for you, not settling in places that aren’t bringing you joy, not settling for letting friendships end instead of putting in the work to keep them despite the changes that all relationships go through. In Funny Story Henry argues for more than just having permission to follow your happiness, but also that it takes work and it’s scary to be vulnerable, but it’s so worth it.
Other Things I Read and Watched This Week
Bullet Train - This felt like if someone remade Pulp Fiction but missed all the things that made Pulp Fiction great.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - My friend and I had the entire theatre to ourselves! Yippee!