I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Press UK and the author Tove Ditlevsen.
This was definitely an ARC, lots of formatting errors and lack of titles between the stories left one running seamlessly into the next, which made things hard to follow at times. Lots of typos as well, bizarrely lots of missing 'f's. This does not influence my score.
Well written and engaging short stories but difficult to read as they're so unrelentingly bleak and depressing. The common theme throughout the stories is the futility of life as a woman domestically, in the family home and against the villains of the stories, men. A tough read, stories often left open-ended and with a feeling of incompleteness, leaving you without a doubt that there is no resolution or redemption around the corner. 3 stars.

The Trouble With Happiness Ditlevsen seems to say is that for women it is constantly out of reach. In these gloomy stories, portraits of domestic life in Denmark, women are anxious and teetering on the edge. There is no solace to be found and it's a perpetual battle against insanity.
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Having read this after The Copenhagen Trilogy, it was a familiar foray into Ditlevsen's universe with its layered and unfailing writing beautifully translated by Michael Favala Goldman.
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This collection reminded me of two other by Danish author Ida Jessen, A Postcard for Annie and A Change of Time which I loved.
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A fave passage from the collection:
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" Everyone could see it for themselves, so why should it make any difference that they never talked about it? It followed her everywhere, every day, every minute: on the bus, on the trolley, in the stores, and in the long, long streets, where it was almost impossible to slip unnoticed through an open square or– even worse– past those groups of young people standing on corners after work, whose revealing, watchful eyes tormented her more than anything– but not so much after she had gotten married and therefore was generally recognized as a woman who could be desired and loved, and be someone’s partner like anyone else. Did he think about it when they were out together? All the time? Had she lulled herself into a false sense of security here, inside the walls of the home they had created together? Her childhood dream of being like everyone else or just having any other kind of bodily problem, something that wasn’t noticed at first glance– an unhealthy complexion, spindly legs, ugly hands– returned to her."
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I voluntarily read and reviewed a free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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This is a wonderful book with a stunning collection of stories. I am a big fan of this author & was so thrilled to get a copy of this collection. I will surely seek out a paper copy of this book as I am eager to revisit it in future.

A collection of short stories focussing on domestic life. I usually like the structure of short stories as it provides a snapshot of a characters life or focusses on an interesting incident but this collection was quite depressing though well written n.

Poignant, thought-provoking and deeply affecting collection of short stories about domestic lives and the emotions beneath the surface. Originally written in the 1950s/60s and recently translated into English.

Excellent writing, with a typically bleak Nordic Noir style, exploring identity and societal norms, hopes, expectations and stereotypes.

This is a collection of bleak and sad short stories with central themes of loneliness and dissatisfaction. Mainly focusing on women, the stories are from a time when their lives consisted of being housewives married to controlling and faithless men. Mundane life and marriage with small disappointments and betrayals on a daily basis are what these tales project.

Folk wish for ordinary things hoping that they will bring them happiness, as in the first story The Umbrella. An item so plain and unremarkable, that her parents refused to buy one as a gift when she was a child. As an adult, she purchases one for herself and is happy - for a while. Expectations and reality don't match up.

The writing is observant, subtle and intensely human and therefore quite unsettling. The simplicity of the domestic scenes disguise the deep psychological symbolism that the umbrella, shoes and a cat, for example, represent. Details of ordinary lives show underlying resentments, desires, fears and frustrations between people. Classic domestic noir - uncomfortable, recognisable and bare. Brilliant.

Coming to this short story collection after reading Childhood, Youth, Dependency: The Copenhagen Trilogy, I came to like Tove Ditlevsen’s style. Dark, grim, and pessimistic, yet her stories resonate with the reality of lonely urban life and its exploitation of individuals. Aside from the titular The Trouble with Happiness, the short stories featured in this collection are fictional, and mostly they deal with stories of unhappy families, often at the expense of the women who get disadvantaged in their situations due to sudden divorces or inabilities to voice their opinions against their husbands.

The book opens with a short story entitled The Umbrella. Helga, the heroine, is described as 'expected more from life than it could deliver.' But Helga is not far from our reality. Often, we’re unhappy because our expectations are higher than what happens in real-life situations. Happiness is about managing expectations, to be content with what we have. And that’s the heart of the matter with Tove’s characters. As the title suggests, what Helga wants is not a luxury item to have. She wants an umbrella, for an unknown purpose that she doesn’t disclose. Yet the simple desire is rejected by her husband. Sometimes it’s not that we have unrealistic expectations. Perhaps we asked the wrong people, or we asked them at the wrong time, or we were just unlucky.

Another story, The Knife tells about a father who entrusted a knife that has been passed from his father to his son, an inter-generational inheritance. His son frequently loses his belongings, but the father insists that the knife is a special item. When his son loses the knife, the father tells him to find it by night, asserting his dominance over his family. Leaving his office, he was prepared to scold the boy for losing the knife. Yet he was appalled by the fact that the boy found the knife. He was unhappy with the development. Like in some other stories in this collection too, Tove also guides her readers to analyse our unhappiness throughout generations. Sometimes the problems didn’t begin with us, unfinished problems in childhood transpire in adulthood as desires to show dominance in our households, for no apparent reason.

There’s also a story that shows women's exploitation by men in A Fine Business. A woman has just been divorced and quickly ran into debt to cover daily expenses for her three children. Her husband told her to sell their house to cover the expenses. She was prepared to sell the house for 25,000 kroner. A real estate agent helps a new couple looking for a house to acquire the house for only 20,000 kroner, knowing the woman is desperate to earn money, while the couple is willing to pay the original price. The woman owning the house is looking for the wife of the man who is buying the house, hoping for their sisterhood to help bring a fair transaction. Yet she was left dumbfounded. ‘You don’t even know the person you’re married to,’ she repeats. There are times when we thought we know someone who has been accompanying us for years, only to be confronted by the fact that we don’t really know the person. People change, feelings aren’t permanent, and there’s simply no consolation or solution for the hurt (and economic problems for divorced women, by extension), which is a sad fact in life.

Tove’s stories, unique for the time they were published, bring about the message about the unfairness of modern life and the women marginalised by it. Through her stories, she questions the sustainability of a nuclear family, with the rising rates of divorces and the inability of women in her stories to support their children and themselves with their working-class backgrounds. But sometimes humans are just numb to situations after getting “comfortable”. We begin to take things for granted, in what Tove says, ‘The fact that we are so incredibly uninterested in what is happening inside the person closest to us is probably the source of many problems.’

The Trouble with Happiness is a collection of short stories about troubled domestic lives in Copenhagen.

Most of these stories were about women in unhappy marriages who just wanted more for themselves. Unfortunately, the men they were with either couldn't or wouldn't be that for them. These stories were kind of horrifying in that so many people marry or spend their lives with the wrong people. So many are miserable and know that a better or happier life is possible, but being unable or unwilling to find it.

The Trouble with Happiness by Tove Ditlevsen is a collection of poignant and unremitting short stories focusing on moments from domestic life.

Beautiful writing but two strikes against it for me (and this is really personal taste here); I'm not a fan of short stories and I had not realised this was a collection ..no, not always am I put off .. Chekhov's or Tolstoy's or various others short pieces I can enjoy.. but these are rather miserable in tone throughout which is my second failing as a reader ... I find especially these days, I cannot tolerate that malaise easily any more .. i avoid it. So I'm not the right reader despite recognising her excellent writerly skills .. the problems of these women also don't move me (although some themes are familiar).

Sometimes we pick up certain books at the wrong time, and I definitely think that was the case with this book for me. It wasn’t bad per say, but it did take me quite a while to get through.

I loved some of the stories in this collection, particularly the title story; The Trouble with Happiness. However, some of the stories in this bunch didn’t stand out enough, and there were a few times where I felt bored.

In this book, Ditlevsen writes about everything from the solitary life of a housewife, to the struggles of a wronged woman, and she does it well. Sadly, I recognised the same struggle with this book as I do with most short story collection, it was difficult to fully focus on every single story. Since many of these stories handled the same subject, a woman who is in some way unhappy with her life, the distinction between each new story became less and less obvious.

All in all, I think Ditlevsen is a terrific writer, her words are particular and exact, and even in their mundanity they hold power. I do however not think this is her best work.

Very interesting short stories from a literary talent I am very happy to have discovered. Beguiling, ferocious, perfect.

The Trouble With Happiness is a collection of short stories which explores female desires, stereotypes and taboos by exaggerating themes. The short stories make you question the roles pushed on the genders and how the small ways women attempt to rebel against them.

A must read! I loved it.

This is a collection of very strange, very bleak short stories. Some stories are only a few pages but they really hammer home the scandi-noir desolation. Brilliant writing creates pictures in your head as you follow the grim relationships of women seeking love or validation. Or maybe just an umbrella. The Umbrella is my favourite story because of the way it is held up as a symbol but - no spoilers here - will it bring the joy the narrator hopes?

The characters are perfectly drawn and you care about them - or at least some of them. Some of the characters, men in particular but not exclusively, are horrible and you might hope they get their comeuppance but you will react in some way.

I will look for other work by Ms Ditlevsen because she is an accomplished writer.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

What a wonderful collection of short stories. These are possibly some of the best I have read to date. Poignant and piercing; I found the stories emotional and deeply affecting.

As a middle aged person these stories and their themes of identity, societal roles etc. provoked a lot of self reflection and pondering.

If I was to describe this book with one word it would be “malaise”.

This is up there with the best short story collections I’ve ever read, and mind you, I have read quite a few!

This book explores all kinds of existentialism tied to social conventions, marriage, family, children, relationships. The stories have a common thread running through, being of melancholy and dissatisfaction, but done masterfully with lightness, humor and honesty.

I loved every word of this book and the how she addressed different perspectives and voices all throughout. Some of the stories reminded me of Ginzburg’s hand for making personal narratives feel timeless and affecting.

Flawless.

I found Ditlevsen's trilogy of memoirs, The Copenhagen Trilogy, to be absolutely thrilling. But this collection of her stories struck me as dull and monotonous, with very little variation in tone or subject matter. The unrelenting bleakness and desolation of these bleak and desolate lives just became tiresome after about the fifth story in the collection.

2.5 rounded down

I discovered Tove Ditlevsen through the recent Penguin editions of her autobiography (The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood / Youth / Dependency). I read the three sections separately and all three would feature on a top 10 memoirs of all time list if I was to put one together. I enjoyed The Faces too, so it was disappointing to find that this collection of her short stories was, whilst well written, unrelentingly miserable and bleak. Perhaps inspiration for some of the characters and plots were taken from her own tragic life (The Copenhagen Trilogy gives a broader picture of this, including the author's drug addiction and marital problems), and whilst I'm certainly not averse to reading sad or upsetting stories there was little light at the end of the tunnel for any of these characters and maybe I read it at the wrong time. I'd still suggest giving this a go if you have enjoyed her writing previously, as I imagine many other readers will have a different reaction to this collection than I did.

This is a raw and a poignant work of art from the authors. The stories are truly heartbreaking and human, beautiful written to touch your soul. Absolutely a terrific work of a book.

It's always a joyful experience to read authors in translation. And Tove Ditlevsen is a brilliant one. She was a fine observer of human nature, and in particular of women(and children) life, their most hidden struggles and desires. And that's very evident in the first part of this collection which I believe was in itself a previous collection of short stories called The Umbrella. There is so much heartbreak and loneliness in this stories that it made me feel for the characters so deeply. Despite being just short stories, this character left their mark on me. It is extraordinary for an author to accomplish that in just a few pages, isn't it?!

The second part titled: The Trouble with Happiness is more of a mixed bag, as it usually happens with many collections of short stories. They cover a more broad spectrum, with many more fantastical elements. While I did enjoy them, they were not as visceral as the stories and the first collection, and left me wishing for more.

But that being said, I found this collection a very good one; and Ditlevsen a fascinating author that I would like to explore more.