Contemporary 'literary' fiction-does it have to be bleak to be good?

[ArcticRoll]

The last few books I have read have been brilliant but ultimately a bit depressing/distressing and/ or bleak;
The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox
The Kite Runner
The Tenderness of Wolves
The Inheritance of Loss
The Gathering
Half a Yellow Sun
On Chesil Beach
and just about to start A Thousand Spendid
Suns for book group.
I feel the need for some light relief when it's my turn to select for book group.
Any ideas for 'quality' contemporary fiction that isn't distressing or bleak?
Ta.

What is it with book clubs and "A Thousand Splendid Suns"? I read it for mine. Arguably one of the five worst books I ever read.

I thought the current MN book of the month was pretty bleak... incest and infanticide hardly what you'd call "light reading".

The Clare Chambers book is "The Editor's Wife".

William Sutcliffe is quite funny, but don't try "The Love Hexagon" - it's ThisLife-lite with annoyingly thin characters.

How do you define "literary" fiction though? Surely it has a great deal to do with examining / exploring the nature of the human condition, which if looked at in a balanced way is going to have its share of darkness.