Happiness - Softcover

Ferguson, Will

3.77

3,651 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006052510X ISBN 13: 9780060525101

Publisher: HarpPeren, 2003

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The arrival on his desk of Tupak Soiree's What I Learned on the Mountain, the manuscript for a new self-help book, has dramatic repercussions for Edwin de Valu, a stressed-out, overworked, underpaid, and cynical New York City editor, in a hilarious satire on the concept of self-help in modern-day America. Reprint.

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Review:

"The Age of Nice is at hand, and there's nothing we can do about it." But the main protagonist of Will Ferguson's Happinesss terminally luckless book editor Edwin de Valu does want to do something. In fact, he feels obliged to put a stop to the Age of Nice, because it's all his fault. Desperate to save a flagging career in the world of self-help publishing, Edwin has staked everything on a dubious, thousand-page manuscript bearing the motto "Live! Love! Learn!" Promising its readers endless wealth, effortless weight loss and everlasting happiness, the book has become a runaway success. And that's where Edwin's problems really begin. Not just the murderous cartel of drug and tobacco barons who want Edwin's head on a plate. Also the fact that misery, cynicism, irrational hatred, draught beer--all the things that once made Edwin's life as an underdog bearable--have become outlawed. It's down to one man to save the globe from the tyranny of the Group Hug. But can Edwin do it, before the world economy melts down and a bestselling serial killer called Dr Ethics enacts his own deadly revenge?

It has been said--possibly by the sort of homily-peddling guru that Ferguson attacks so masterfully in his debut novel--that there are many routes to happiness. The general effect of reading this razor-sharp satire on the self-help industry is to understand that these routes lead us nowhere, except perhaps to a cul-de-sac called Hell. This would be depressing to realise, except that Happiness clubs its readers into submission with the sort of zany, almost other-worldly wit that makes us profoundly glad to be alive. --Matthew Baylis

Review:

"A brilliant parody . . . bright and very funny" (Mail on Sunday)

"A sizzling satire on self-help culture" (Daily Mail)

"Will Ferguson's talent as a satirist is to be treasured. His wit enlivens every page, and what starts as an amusing book about publishing expands into a glorious romp though modern life" (Literary Review)

"A gleeful satire on the self-help industry and a must-read" (JONATHAN COE)

"Will Ferguson is a very gifted writer" (BILL BRYSON)

"HappinessTM is a wonderfully assured, gleefully twisted and deeply irreligious satire which manages to be as moving as it is funny" (CHARLIE HILL Independent on Sunday)

"A shrewd and often hilarious examination of contemporary mores, anxieties and desires. And it loudly proves the points that laughter is probably the best therapy we are likely to get" (Scotland on Sunday)

"Aduous Huxley meets Carl Hiaasen (as a blurb-writer at Panderic Press might say)" (Independent)

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