I Want You to Be Happy by Jem Calder: ‘What are we?’

I put my hand up for Jem Calder’s first novel having very much enjoyed his linked short story collection, Reward System. He’s one of those writers who’s attracted puffs from the likes of Sally Rooney which may or may not predispose some readers towards him. Set in London, I Want You to Be Happy follows Chuck and Joey who spend the night together after meeting in a bar.

As Chuck paid for their round with a coral-coloured card, Joey surreptitiously checked her makeup using her phone’s front-facing camera; tonight, she’d gone to a great deal of effort to appear not to have gone to any effort at all.

Chuck’s thirty-five, a lead copywriter, as he’s careful to tell Joey, recently split from his fiancée after twelve years together. Joey’s twenty-four, a barista living in a single room in an apartment she can barely afford. They’re a mismatched couple – Joey’s friends teasing her about Chuck’s age; Chuck casually dismissive of Joey’s work – but they embark on something that can’t quite be called a relationship, carefully strategising their texts’ timing and content. Both harbour ambitions to write. Joey’s poems had been showcased at university and Chuck was an aspiring novelist, stalled since he dumped Sarah for reasons that appear amorphous even to him now. As their connection progresses, Joey begins to hope for something more than Chuck may be capable of delivering. Four months later, each seems on the cusp of change.

He scrolled the Guardian homepage and read an article about the climate, which he’d forgotten to feel anxious about yet today, but now was.

Calder’s narrative shifts between Chuck and Joey, capturing the awkwardness of the beginnings of a relationship which seems unlikely, even to them, with a painful acuity and wit. Chuck seems oblivious to his privileged life, his five roomed apartment contrasting with Joey’s cramped accommodation in a flat share with people she doesn’t really like. While she struggles to make ends meet, he lives off expensive takeaways, drinks far too much, thinking more of Joey as a distraction. She ignores her friends’ careful warnings, allowing herself to think about a future as they spend more time together. Both are sharply portrayed: I found Joey very much more engaging than Chuck but perhaps that was the point. I enjoyed Calder’s writing which was as smartly astute as I remembered from his short stories. Happy to read his second novel when it appears.

Faber & Faber: London 9780571387458 240 pages Hardback (Read via NetGalley)