Ordinary Pleasures offers a new theory of narrative in its uncovering of how conversations and comic exchanges between lovers in stories create an intimacy and happiness of the everyday. Drawing on philosophy, sociolinguistics, and theories of comedy and reading an unexpectedly eclectic group of novels and films from Anna Karenina to Casablanca and I Love Lucy, Kay Young explores how narrative couples play together, struggle together, and return to one another to experience “ordinary happiness.”