column Booktails
Happy Hour
Book and Cocktail Club
By Marlowe Granados n
“An intriguing look into the literary value of the unlikeable “party girl''.”
26 • Benicia Magazine
Cooper Mickelson
“I feel as though becoming a woman is like a long tradition of going through things and coming out strong, but I am tired and weary!” Due to some extremely mixed reviews, I was a bit nervous when I first picked up Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados. Some reviewers felt like they were watching a mid-season episode of Gossip Girl, while others consider it a glorious work of social criticism. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I related more to the latter. Happy Hour is a diary-style contemporary fiction following two twenty-one-year-old girls as they navigate a summer in New York. Completely broke and wildly problematic, Isa and Gala are primarily concerned with pursuing pleasure in all of its forms.
During the day, Isa and Gala sell clothes at a market stall, barely making enough money to cover the rent for their shared bed in the city. They move through varying neighborhoods at night, bumping elbows with celebrities, artists, entrepreneurs, comedians, stuck-up intellectuals, and boorish grifters. The girls attempt to convert their social capital into real cash with jobs as nightclub hostesses, au pairs, paid audience members, and even a short attempt at foot modeling. But, as the summer continues and their money runs out, their friendship is tested. Reading Happy Hour felt like reading a book all about being young and human, specifically the experience of coming of age during late capitalism. Through Isa’s voice, Granados perfectly captures the thrill of grappling for a life of glamor and adventure with nothing but
