There is Ms. Terry McMillan's humor throughout the novel. Her humor relaxed me. I realized life is tough, but life is also very funny. For example, there are the twins. The twins belong to Thora, Thora is Savannah's boss. These little "boys" are four years old and have pacifiers sticking in their mouths. When they pull the pacifiers from their mouths, they talk like grownups. Like any of life's moments a lot of the humor comes unexpectedly from the mouths of children. Gloria's grandchildren are adorable. Of course, the ladies are funny too. Many times I just laid the novel down and squealed with laughter. When the four women are trying to decide where to go on a trip, Robin pipes up with "I'm not going near any wild animals. Jeeps or no jeeps." Oh boy, I'm laughing again.
I also loved reading about Savannah's trip to Paris, France. Savannah needed to get away in the worse way. Thora offers her, I thought, a chateau in Paris. The place is anything but a chateau. It's more like, well, Savannah had to move out immediately. Here is the wonderful part of her travels in Paris.
"I am in Paris, I thought. I wanted to give myself a few minutes to appreciate how I got here. I sat on the grass. Watched the tugboats. The floating restaurants....I was awestruck looking up at the Eiffel Tower...Directly across this river was the Left Bank. It felt surreal, looking at so much history."
Returning to the more serious events in the novel, there is Hurricane Katrina. She hits after Savannah returns from Paris, France. Ms. Terry McMillan writes about the catastrophe very descriptively. I could see the people in that Super Dome all over again. I could hear the babies crying. I could see the elderly in wheel chairs. I could feel their every need crawling up and down my skin all over again. The ladies have hearts of gold.
"I spent the next hour wading through all the websites that had been set up for sending money for Katrina victims...I added a couple of thousand to it and sent a third toward hospitalization and medical help, another third for books and school supplies and the rest for food and clothing."
Getting To Happy is packed with every emotion we can experience in life. How many times did I inhale and exhale? I can't count.
"...When we inhale, we're breathing in hope and vitality, and when we exhale, we're breathing out hurt and anger. You can breathe in faith and confidence and breathe out doubt and despair..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ3PEtkIw1k
