{"id":248,"date":"2004-04-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T22:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushlamckinney.wordpress.com\/?p=248"},"modified":"2025-05-03T16:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T04:56:10","slug":"state-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2004\/04\/16\/state-of-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong><strong>Stella Duffy<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>Virago<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, April 16th 2004<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The path of every life can be considered as a map of the unknown.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; In her early 30s, she has one highly successful book behind her and the prospect of a fulfilling career still to come.&nbsp; Her partner, Jack, has also had his first big break \u2013 control of his own, syndicated news programme \u2013 and they look eagerly toward their future together.&nbsp; Then Cindy finds a lump behind her ribs, and she finds herself confronting a road with no possibility&nbsp; of detour or return.&nbsp; In response she begins to map the changes in her own body&nbsp; as it weakens, to retrace the contours of her own life and relationships to give shape and meaning to these final stages of being.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u00a0Death is one of the few taboo subjects remaining in modern discourse.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In\u00a0<em>State of Happiness<\/em>, 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\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Although Duffy began this book before her own diagnosis with breast cancer, her own experiences must surely echo through Cindy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stella Duffy <br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review April 16th 2004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,370,505,500,18,22],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-7","tag-fiction","tag-nz","tag-nz-author","tag-odt","tag-stella-duffy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1182,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}