Happyland, J. Robert Lennon, Part 1

I first discovered J. Robert Lennon when I bought a copy of Mailman after reading a great review on Bookmunch.com. I didn’t like it. Then as time went on I heard about Pieces for the Left Hand, when I got that in the mail from Granta. I was stunned, and went on to review it in my monthly column at AICN. Pieces for the Left Hand is a book that should be taught in creative writing classes, and could be a bible for wanna be writers everywhere. Essentially it’s short stories about small towns and the people who occupy them, it’s just been re-released by Graywolf Press in paperback alongside his new novel, Castle.

There are no shortage of J. Robert Lennon fans in the literary community. When I heard he’d written a novel that couldn’t find a publisher I had to get my hands on it. The only place I could find a copy of Happyland was in Harper’s magazine. It was serialized over the course of few issues, and each week I made a trip to my local library and made a copy of the story. I was eager to read it, and I don’t know why I let it sit untouched for over a year. There is a rumor going around that the reason it can’t get a publisher is that Happyland is about a real person, and it’s just a rumor, it’s all fiction…trust me. But there is an interesting article here.

In the next couple weeks I’m going to talk a little bit about the story of Happyland and as luck would have it, J. Robert Lennon was kind enough to agree to answer a few of my questions about this wonderful story. If you’d like to read the first installment go here: Harper’s

Happyland, Part I. July 2006 Harper’s Magazine.

This is a conventional story, as much as there are only a few types of story ideas out there; stranger comes to town (this is that idea), man vs himself, man vs man, man vs animal, it goes on, I just can’t remember all of them, and when I’m at a loss for one I just watch a David Mamet movie.

I’d say for sure that Happy Masters is a bitch, selfish, absorbed with her own deluded fictions and poised to take over the town Equinox, New York as her own and make it in her image. Happy is a doll and children’s book mogul, and has it in her head to take over this quiet little college town from it’s residents and make it into Happyland, full of life-sized replicas of the environments depicted in her children’s books. Happy marches to the beat of her own drum, as it’s financed by her wealthy husband whom she only has time for when it’s fair weather.

Mr. Lennon does a masterfully quick job at getting all of the main players into motion in this meaty first part of the story. Happy lands on Equinox will both feet and starts buying up the town, piece be piece, person by person. What is even more exciting to watch is how Lennon gets each person into the readers head. Librarian Ruth Spinks who will be Happy’s nemesis, the owner of the local bar Dave Dryer is pessimistic to Happy’s ideas, to say the least. Both of these people instantly dislike Happy and don’t waste time mincing their words. We then get a slice of Reeve Tennyson, President of the local College, who has come to Equinox under suspicious circumstances, it’s a sweet little bit of gossip, and one that most likely will come back to haunt everyone involved. It also showcases Lennon’s talents as a sublime writer, weaving little bits of information about each person, dipping his toes into their pasts just deep enough to keep your interest but never slowing the story down. Finally, what would a story about a egomaniac like Happy Masters be with out an adoring “I’ll do anything to work for you” fan. Janet is a withering college girl, something of a weak chinned shadowless blade of grass, and Happy sees her as a way to massage the most important part of this community, the College.

Happy is nearly dragged under and devoured by an angry mob of townsfolk, but is able to placate them with smoke and mirrors and empty promises. Once Happy has figured everyone out, she starts to wield the power only the wealthy are capable of. This is a glorious start to a wonderfully entertaining story.

Jason Rice: Where did the idea for Happyland come from? And can you give truth the rumor that it’s based on a real person? Is that what’s holding up it’s publication in book form?

J. Robert Lennon: No, the book isn’t based on a real person, and that’s not the holdup–the book was inspired by a real-life semi-takeover of an upstate New York town by a former doll-company mogul, no secret about that–but Happy Masters isn’t anything like the real mogul, as far as I know. The situation was from real life, but all the characters are invented. As far as its not having come out in book form…what can I say? It’s a literary novel, and they’re hard to sell. I’m still confident it’ll happen someday.

JR: I loved your cast of characters in the first section, especially Reeve, he seemed so perfectly suited to be running a small town college. There is a great sense of authenticity to your characters, how hard is that for you to develop?

JRL: You mean perfectly unsuited, right? Which I guess is to say, perfectly suited for a satirical novel. no, inventing and developing characters is my favorite thing to do–it’s inventing things to happen to them that’s always a challenge. It’s hard to develop a story in a way that makes it seem like something that actually might happen, not something that I want to happen. In the case of Happyland, I just threw those considerations out the window and went with the most entertaining (to me, anyway) plot twists I could think up.

JR: Happy Masters has plans for this town, and as it sits right now at the end of the first section it seems as though she’s had her way with everyone and is going to get her wish, to buy the town right out from under everyone’s noses. Will any
real foil to Happy arrive on the scene in the coming chapters? You’ve told me that you had to drop a few characters from this story before it went to publication at Harper’s?

JRL: Yeah, a few people fell by the wayside in the Harper’s version, but even in the unabridged one…let’s just say that Happy is her own worst enemy.

JR: There is a small town feeling to your writing, a loneliness, a solitude that is sometimes lost in the suburban ideal. I wonder if you find a sense of anonymity in these settings, and if so, how does it shape your writing and characters?

JRL: I love small towns, and the strange way things can develop in them, when everyone knows everyone else too well, and people are forced to grow inward rather than outward. Ruth, the librarian in Happyland, feels this more powerfully than anyone else–she both loves and hates living in a small town. I suppose I’m the same way–I couldn’t wait to leave my small town when I was 18, but somehow I keep ending up in new ones, c’est la vie!

Stay tuned, I’ll talk more about Happyland next week, and hopefully J. Robert Lennon will give us more of his time…

-JR