Despite this somewhat gray world, I Want You to Be Happy’s charm is its magnetism and relatability ... Reading Calder’s fiction is just as easy as operating within the rhythms of life. His stories mirror existence; that alone is a talent, even if you’re looking for a gaudier narrative ... Even so, the book’s realism is sometimes a detriment ... On one hand, it’s interesting to read a straight-shot account of a relationship—no frills, just the facts. Even if its structure evades truly memorable moments, it is charming to think of Calder as the internet age’s chronicler-in-residence, almost as if he’s working off a transcript from an actual couple. A more bombastic novel might not be his thing, stylistically, but his astuteness here suggests the possibility for something more detailed and dramatic in the future.
I read it twice, both times in a single afternoon, and was impressed by Calder’s deft characterisation, by his observant descriptions and the social conditions they implied. He has genuine talent ... The only problem is the aftertaste. I finished the novel with a slight emptiness, as though Joey and Chuck, hollowed out by the impersonal world they were formed in, had drifted away, leaving little trace.
Unless a writer has something new to say on the subject, the book runs the risk of being quickly forgettable ... Poorly written sentences ... His first book, a short story collection, was praised, but his graduation to the longer form is less successful and perhaps that’s the reason why.
His eye for detail is acute ... A testament to how immersive and deftly realised is the world Calder creates. It’s an emotionally convincing one, too ... Rereading the story after the novel, it’s precisely these similarities that clarify how much the longer form plays to Calder’s strengths, deepening his characters and allowing his emotional and sociological acuity to go further. He was good to begin with, and he’s only getting better.
What’s fresh about it is the book’s precise attention to the environment in which such a story now takes place ... In some ways, under the surface, this is a warm and quite an old-fashioned sort of thing: a proper novel. Its protagonists have inner lives; their feelings are important to them, and us. The turn-and-turn-about third-person narration allows Calder unobtrusively to make clear the disjunctions between how they see each other and how they see themselves, and to watch their attempts to mediate their personae in the digital spaces in which we now half live. Man, you find yourself thinking: it’s tough out there for singles.
Though his prose can be sparse and exacting, Calder has a remarkable way of capturing the complexities of dating, relationships, and simply existing in the 2020s. A clever, wry, and hyper-realistic portrayal of contemporary life.
