How to Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Sex and Teenage Confusion (David Burton, Text)

‘I think we all know how to make ourselves happier, it’s just getting there that’s the trouble.’ David Burton’s memoir, a frank look at the path to happiness via adolescence, was the winner of the 2014 Text Prize. David’s narrative voice is instantly likeable—‘I’ve already lied to you’, he writes—and one that will get readers immediately on side. There are moments where the reflective tone makes Burton seem removed from his experience, but for the most part the narrative feels immediate and authentic. As a child and teenager, David is surrounded by unhappiness, but fails (at first) to recognise it in himself. His memoir charts the way his experience with depression shapes his identity. His story delivers some devastating truth bombs. Sexuality is hard. Identity is hard. Love is hard. School is hard. People, many of them, aren’t coping. His journey will be familiar to most, if not because of their own experience but because of the experience of those around them. This book shines a much-needed light back through the tunnel. It is a call-out to teenagers still struggling to find their way. How to Be Happy says ‘here’s the path I took, hope it helps’.

Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne writer and reviewer and the schools coordinator for the Stella Prize

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews