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Table of Contents
About The Book
When a trip to the therapist ends with the question “Can’t Kim be happy?” Kim Korson responds the way any normal person would—she makes fun of it. Because really, does everyone have to be happy?
Aside from her father wearing makeup and her mother not feeling well (a lot), Kim Korson’s 1970s suburban upbringing was typical. Sometimes she wished her brother were an arsonist just so she’d have a valid excuse to be unhappy. And when life moves along pretty decently--she breaks into show business, gets engaged in the secluded jungles of Mexico, and moves her family from Brooklyn to dreamy rural Vermont—the real despondency sets in. It’s a skill to find something wrong in just about every situation, but Kim has an exquisite talent for negativity. It is only after half a lifetime of finding kernels of unhappiness where others find joy that she begins to wonder if she is even capable of experiencing happiness.
In I Don’t Have a Happy Place, Kim Korson untangles what it means to be a true malcontent. Rife with evocative and nostalgic observations, unapologetic realism, and razor-sharp wit, I Don’t Have a Happy Place is told in humorous, autobiographical stories. This fresh-yet-dark voice is sure to make you laugh, nod your head in recognition, and ultimately understand what it truly means to be unhappy. Always.
Aside from her father wearing makeup and her mother not feeling well (a lot), Kim Korson’s 1970s suburban upbringing was typical. Sometimes she wished her brother were an arsonist just so she’d have a valid excuse to be unhappy. And when life moves along pretty decently--she breaks into show business, gets engaged in the secluded jungles of Mexico, and moves her family from Brooklyn to dreamy rural Vermont—the real despondency sets in. It’s a skill to find something wrong in just about every situation, but Kim has an exquisite talent for negativity. It is only after half a lifetime of finding kernels of unhappiness where others find joy that she begins to wonder if she is even capable of experiencing happiness.
In I Don’t Have a Happy Place, Kim Korson untangles what it means to be a true malcontent. Rife with evocative and nostalgic observations, unapologetic realism, and razor-sharp wit, I Don’t Have a Happy Place is told in humorous, autobiographical stories. This fresh-yet-dark voice is sure to make you laugh, nod your head in recognition, and ultimately understand what it truly means to be unhappy. Always.
About The Author
Photograph by Sam Waxman
Kim Korson is a writer, originally from Montreal, Canada. Kim now lives in Southern Vermont with her husband and two kids. She doesn’t get out much.
Product Details
- Publisher: Gallery Books (April 14, 2015)
- Length: 288 pages
- ISBN13: 9781476740317
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Raves and Reviews
Kim Korson must be stopped. My wife thinks she's funnier than me.
– Jon Stewart
I Don't Have a Happy Place is the book you'll beg your friends to read--for its pitch-perfect humor, scintillating wit, and refreshing depiction of life in all its extraordinary, and ordinary, absurdity. Kim Korson is certainly a new and exciting voice in nonfiction, unafraid to shout out loud the things you and I may only dare to think. I haven't laughed like this since David Sedaris.
– Julia Fierro, author of Cutting Teeth
I love this book. It’s like 95 percent cacao chocolate – bitter but delicious.
– A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically
In the razor-sharp, acerbic I Don’t Have A Happy Place, Kim Korson— think: Jewish, female, Canadian David Sedaris— recounts her adventures as a true malcontent.
– Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet
Makeup-wearing dads, squirrel attacks, death, Phil Donahue, - there’s something for everybody in Kim Korson’s great new book. And if not having a happy place is what it takes to make writing so hilarious, smart, and honest, I selfishly hope Kim remains miserable within reason for many years to come.
– Dave Hill, author of Tasteful Nudes
Korson’s preoccupations—checking crime blotters for neighborhood stats, being certain that her first child would come out crazy, avoiding chitchat at parties—may keep her firmly in her cranky cave but will strike a funny bone in readers.
– Publishers Weekly
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High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): I Don't Have a Happy Place eBook 9781476740317
- Author Photo (jpg): Kim Korson Photograph by Sam Waxman(0.1 MB)
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