THE CORNERSTONES OF HAPPINESS

A former exotic dancer looks high and low for happiness using self-help books as a guide in Taylor’s debut novel.

Lindsay North, a 26-year-old Florida native, left an exotic dancing career and moved to New York City, looking for a fresh start. She found work as a nanny but remains unfulfilled, and she consults self-help books for answers, distilling the secret of happiness to four “cornerstones,” starting with “A healthy body makes a heathy mind.” One day, she runs into Cinnamon and Aspen, her former co-workers at a Florida strip club who are now working at Lyon’s, a Queens furniture store where they’re paid under the table. Cinnamon offers Lindsay a job there, and soon the happily reunited women are selling mattresses by day and going out every night. Lindsay reconnects with her younger self, going by her old stage name, Chardonnay. She’s particularly taken by Cinnamon’s confidence, which is why she listens when she urges her to do MDMA at a New Jersey club; Lindsay experiences intense euphoria, only to crash into depression and suicidal thoughts. As Lindsay develops addictions to drugs, alcohol, and BDSM, Cinnamon’s manipulative personality is revealed. Lindsay faces additional struggles, and later confronts her own troubled childhood. Taylor’s novel grapples with heavy subjects, but the narrative tone is often playful and even exuberant. Lindsay’s voice is as biting as it is humorous (“Hedonists are a milder version of thrillists, their boring cousins, if you will”), and even minor secondary characters, such as Lindsay’s roommate Liam, deliver charming one-liners. Lindsay’s relatively quick recovery from self-destructive behavior feels unrealistic, but the process yields perceptive moments, nonetheless: “Was happiness not a formula but a set of formulas?” Overall, it’s a risqué novel about self-fulfillment that delivers handily.

A whimsical and sometimes-insightful tale of a quest for contentment.