If It Makes You Happy

Thirty-three-year-old Cliff Burke is one of the novel’s main characters and the first-person narrator of chapters titled with his first name. Cliff has lived in Copper Run all of his life. While some people see the rural New England town as a trap, Cliff sees it as an ideal home. Life in Copper Run feels fulfilling to Cliff, if challenging. It has not been easy for him to raise his daughters, Emily and Brittany, and run his business, Burke’s Bakery, alone after his ex-wife Tracy left him a few years prior. However, Cliff would not trade his circumstances. He believes that the difficult aspects of single fatherhood and business ownership are rewarding.

Despite Cliff’s nominal contentment in Copper Run, he is lonely. Cliff tells himself that he is not ready to date again because he is too consumed by his daughters and business—one of the challenges of starting over after loss. However, his outlook on romance begins to change as soon as he meets his new neighbor, Michelle. Michelle is unlike any woman he’s ever been interested in. She is a metropolitan transplant with class, style, and ambition, while he sees himself as “some random small-town baker” (227). Even still, Cliff cannot hide his interest in Michelle. He helps with her business and delights in her company. He pursues a close friendship with her and begins to imagine the possibilities of an intimate relationship, illustrating friendship as scaffolding for romantic trust. The only trouble is that Cliff knows Michelle’s stay in Copper Run is temporary; he is not going to give up his life in New England and has no interest in compromising Michelle’s urban dreams either. His and Michelle’s complex relationship gradually alters how he sees his own future: Cliff realizes that his predictable life is better with Michelle than without her.

Throughout the novel, Cliff is careful to give Michelle space. He spends as much time with her as possible, but never asks her to abandon her dreams on his behalf, showing his nuanced understanding of the conflict between ambition and rootedness. He invites her into his life, but never burdens her with familial or relational responsibilities. By the end of the novel, however, he realizes he cannot let her go. He returns to the airport to profess his love because her departure for Seattle “isn’t the end of us” (472). Cliff’s newfound willingness to own his feelings ultimately offers him and Michelle their happy ending.

Sixteen-year-old Emily is a secondary character. She is Cliff and Tracy’s daughter, and Brittany’s older sister. Emily’s parents got pregnant with her when they were teenagers. They decided to stay together, despite their youth and inexperience. Emily is burdened by the weight of her birth story. She feels dismissed by her mother, who seems to resent her for being born and ruining her life: Whenever Tracy calls from New York, she only asks to speak to Brittany and often blames Emily for slight shifts in Brittany’s well-being.

Emily is a sympathetic character who is trying to navigate adolescence in a complicated family situation. Emily loves Cliff and Brittany, but longs for independence. She tries to exercise her agency via her relationship with her boyfriend, Josh. She often sneaks out of her work-study job at the post office to visit Josh at the video store where he works. She sometimes lies to her dad about her whereabouts, because she is convinced he hates Josh. She also repeatedly abandons Brittany to be with her boyfriend, which often results in Brittany getting hurt. Emily makes youthful mistakes; her behavior is not malicious, but an attempt to find her way and assert herself.

Michelle becomes an influential figure in Emily’s life, gradually assuming the role of mentor over the course of her stay in Copper Run. She gains Emily’s trust by listening to her and authenticating her experience. Emily likes Michelle because she is down-to-earth and respectful. She also gives Cliff her blessing to pursue a relationship with Michelle.

Twenty-four-year-old Sara is a secondary character. She is Paulie and Birdie’s youngest child, and Michelle’s younger sister. Whereas Michelle is serious, driven, and removed, Sara is bubbly, energetic, and happy-go-lucky. Michelle feels that Sara possesses all of “the traits of someone who inherits a beloved bed-and-breakfast” (8). Michelle loves Sara deeply, but can’t help feeling second best in comparison to her sister. Sara is easier to love, more amenable and fun than Michelle. Michelle is constantly comparing herself to Sara, especially when she temporarily relocates to Copper Run. She feels like an interloper at the Bird & Breakfast, perpetually aware that Birdie’s dying wish was for Sara to run the inn, not Michelle.

Sara looks up to Michelle and wants her to be happy. She does her best to keep in touch with her sister while Michelle is in Vermont. However, Sara tells Cliff that even she has a hard time reading Michelle; Michelle is loving toward Sara but does not confide in her. Sara later encourages her sister to be more open and vulnerable. She contributes to Michelle’s evolution in subtle ways, including by pushing Michelle to acknowledge her feelings for Cliff.

Birdie Cadell is a minor character. She is Michelle and Sara’s late mother and Paulie’s late wife. Birdie dies just prior to the start of the novel; the Prologue depicts her wake and funeral. Because she is not alive in the narrative present, she never appears in scenes. However, her memory shadows much of Michelle’s storyline. When Michelle relocates to Copper Run to temporarily take over her late mother’s inn, she is confronted by Birdie’s dichotomous legacy. Birdie was distant and depressed when Michelle was growing up. She started to care for herself and to stabilize after Sara was born, giving Sara a totally different childhood than Michelle had. Years later, Birdie became a mainstay of the Copper Run community, where everyone loved and relied upon her. Michelle feels excluded from this happy, positive, bubbly version of her mother. Michelle wants to help Sara by running the inn, but feels frustrated with how differently Birdie treated her than her younger sister.

Michelle reconciles with her mother’s memory by the end of the novel. The letter Birdie left for Sara includes a long passage specifically addressing her love for Michelle; this message moves Michelle and transforms her regard for her mom.