Getting to Happy
Getting to Happy, published in 2010, is the sequel to author Terry McMillan's 1992 novel Waiting to Exhale. Set 15 years after the ending of Waiting to Exhale, the novel takes place in Phoenix, Arizona, and follows the experiences of four African-American female friends in their early 50s and early 60s. Getting to Happy explores how friendship and community is valuable to overcoming life's obstacles, and the ability to reach that peak of happiness, again.
McMillan wrote the novel as a guide for older women who have experienced loss and dejection, forcing them to hit the reset button on their lives. The characters from Waiting to Exhale were used as inspiration for this book due to how their stories ended. McMillan was able to incorporate each characters hurts, joys, and dreams to "capture the emotional reality" for herself and readers.
Plot summary
Since the end of Waiting to Exhale, Savannah has secured a highly rewarding job and has married her "Mr. Wonderful", or so she thought. While Savannah and her husband Isaac shared many good times together, Savannah began to realize that their close-knit relationship had drifted away and she was falling out of love. Uninterested in Isaac's work and focused on her own, Savannah refuses to go on a Vegas trip with him. In Isaac's absence, Savannah is met with the reality that her husband has an unhealthy porn addiction. This leads her to want and acquire a divorce.Robin has been so hyper-focused on maintaining her job and raising her outspoken daughter Sparrow that she has had no time to even think about her love and sex life. Sparrow notices this and criticizes her mother for it. Robin knows that she has not been fortunate in that department and would like to someday be married; however, her chances seem slim. Without marriage, Robin is also left with her dream of wearing a wedding dress deferred. She fears she has missed the mark, and it is too late for her. In an effort to help, Sparrow creates an online dating profile for her, but the results are not entirely hopeful.
Having been six years since Bernadine's divorce from her ex-husband John, Bernadine remarries to a man named James. However, this new marriage has taken an unexpected turn. Bernadine is immediately confronted with a call from James' other wife, claiming that everything James has been telling her over the years has been a lie, including the fact that "James" is not even his real name. Ironically, John was skeptical about this marriage from the start. Due to this scandal, Bernadine was cheated out of her own money, closed her café, became addicted to pills, and rekindled her relationship with John.
Gloria, on the other hand, was living the dream. She shared a happy and healthy marriage with her husband Marvin, had a wonderful family, and a flourishing salon and spa business called "Oasis". However, on her anniversary, tragedy struck. Marvin was killed, and now Gloria is forced to live life without her lover. Gloria plunged into depression, causing Oasis' success to heavily decline and her to gain back all the weight she lost over the years. In addition to her own misfortune, Gloria is also confronted with the new-found information that her daughter-in-law, Nickida, is a criminal and adulteress.
While navigating through a new time period in their lives, each experiencing extreme emotional and mental distress along the way, these four best friends will need to remain strong, connected, and faithful to get back to their happy.