State of Happiness

Stella Duffy

Virago

Otago Daily Times, April 16th 2004

The path of every life can be considered as a map of the unknown.  The points at which this journey starts and ends are fixed, but the movement from one to the other is a passage through terra incognita, full of possibilities and freedom.  It is easy to forget the destination when there are a myriad of paths before us. Cindy Frier is a cartographer with a special interest in how we use maps to define (and redefine) the space around us.  In her early 30s, she has one highly successful book behind her and the prospect of a fulfilling career still to come.  Her partner, Jack, has also had his first big break – control of his own, syndicated news programme – and they look eagerly toward their future together.  Then Cindy finds a lump behind her ribs, and she finds herself confronting a road with no possibility  of detour or return.  In response she begins to map the changes in her own body  as it weakens, to retrace the contours of her own life and relationships to give shape and meaning to these final stages of being. 

 Death is one of the few taboo subjects remaining in modern discourse.  We see it daily on news reports, in movies or on the page, but are safely removed from the reality by the filter of the camera or the narrative voice.  In State of Happiness, however, Stella Duffy turns her back on social convention, taking the reader on a first-person journey through the process of death and dying in all its complexity, and  reminds us that the simple act of living leaves an imprint on the world that remains beyond death, and that this is to be celebrated, even in the midst of grief.  Although Duffy began this book before her own diagnosis with breast cancer, her own experiences must surely echo through Cindy’s own, lending an honesty and intensity to this story that is both an exploration of the strength of the human spirit and a celebration of life.