This week NewMexiKen has really enjoyed reading The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
The operating conceit of this odyssey memoir is that the author, a professed grouch (“My last name is pronounced ‘whiner,’ and I do my best to live up to the name”), will travel to the world’s happier places to explore to what degree an individual’s happiness is intertwined with a shared geography and culture. To that end, he shoots off to unusual locales — Bhutan, Iceland, Qatar — and to Thailand and India, perpetual stopovers for pleasure seekers, visiting nine foreign countries altogether over the course of a year. His final chapter is about the United States, which “is not as happy as it is wealthy.”
The Times reviewer, Pamela Paul, found Weiner’s humor forced or contrived — I found it amusing.
“We know a thing by its opposite. Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by the existence of Barry Manilow.”
“I picked up the companion book to Grumpy Old Men [a British TV series] and flipped to the foreword, written by a grump named Arthur Smith. He begins by observing that ‘life is shit organized by bastards.’ Then he gets negative.”
But mostly I found Weiner’s insights into what makes us happy — and what doesn’t — interesting.
“Social scientists estimate that about 70 percent of our happiness stems from our relationships, both quantity and quality, with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. During life’s difficult patches, camaraderie blunts our misery; during the good times, it boosts our happiness.”
“People are least happy when they’re commuting to work.”
And I always find it rewarding to read about other places and other people.
There’s an interesting dialogue with Weiner at World Hum.