Summary

In "Too Much Happiness", Will's mother constantly misplaces her reading glasses, which she buys frequently, and if fact, after she passes away, Will and his siblings find twenty-seven pairs of them in her apartment. They are reading a mystery novel entitled "The Miracle at Speedy Motors," Mary Ann likes the book because it describes African Villages like the ones she's visited. They celebrate his father's eighty-second birthday shortly thereafter, and his mother tells him that a friend of hers gave her marijuana for the first time, despite the fact that she was very active in the sixties. They visit Dr. O'Reilly for the last time one September first, and a few days later Will must visit California for a business meeting in San Francisco. Along the way he reads a collection of essays by Reynolds Price, who remarks on how seldom Americans speak directly...