A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS by Nicole Seitz
Nicole Seitz is not only a good writer, she is a brave writer. By this I mean she is not afraid to allow her characters to be flawed; is not compelled to tie up every loose end in her story; and can even create plot devices that are risky. She does all of this in her new novel A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS.
The story focuses on Katherine Ann Porter, a married mother of two who has given up her career path as a lawyer to be a homemaker. She and her husband RC live in Charleston which is also where Katherine Ann’s parents live. Katherine Ann is very close to her parents, maybe too close. She is always meddling a bit in their business.
This is especially true when it comes to her father. John Porter is a Vietnam veteran and has never truly faced the traumas he was exposed to there. Katherine Ann wants to help him come to grips with his past and in “helping” she sets off a chain of events that will impact her family for years to come.
Seitz also tells the story of Lisa Le, a Vietnamese woman who lives with her mother in Georgetown, South Carolina. Her life and Katherine Ann’s will intersect. Both will be affected by what happens and both will affect the other in positive and negative ways.
There is a side plot in this book that deals with a man who was killed in Vietnam. At the time of his death his soul went into a fish swimming in a pond. Throughout the book you learn this man’s thoughts as he swims around the pool. Each chapter involving this was wasted on me. I could never get past the “he’s a fish now” concept. Still I applaud Seitz for taking this radical approach to a part of her story.
The rest of the story is much more enjoyable though the ending was not the one I would have written. But that is the author’s prerogative. She knows what she wants her story to be and frames it accordingly.
There are some wonderful moments in A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS. I liked the relationship of the characters and the fact that Katherine Ann, though meddlesome, is still a good person at heart. I also like the way the Vietnam War is faced in this story. It is high time we dealt with this conflict and the effect it has had on the men and women who served there.
A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS is published by Thomas Nelson. It contains 308 pages and sells for $14.99.