- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada (April 12 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 014029984X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140299847
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #484,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
An emotional balancing act of Herculean proportions, Will Ferguson's debut novel is somehow both caustically cynical and touchingly humane. Its message: there is no happiness without sadness. The pursuit of happiness is all--actually attaining it, if that were even possible, would be death. When Edwin de Valu, an editor at Panderic Press, finds What I Learned on the Mountain, a self-help book by an unknown author, Tupak Soiree, on his slush pile and publishes it, suddenly millions of people believe that pursuit is over. "Apocalypse Nice" has arrived, and Edwin's cynical side goes into high gear trying to save the world from itself. On this hysterical (in every sense of the word) quest, Edwin receives little help from his credulous wife, his plump co-worker (and sometime lover) May, or his ponytailed baby-boomer boss, Mr. Mead.
This wacky, lightweight novel mixes elements from Dilbert, Woody Allen, grainy art films, and P.J. O'Rourke. While Ferguson lines up a number of easy targets and can be way too obvious ("The Name of the Tulip" echoes a certain highbrow mystery), he can also write with flair, as in describing Edwin's city: "Here, in a miasma of fumes, trains rattle-bang on an endless Möbius strip of work, sweat, salt and grubby lucre. A merry-go-round where the horses have emphysema." --Mark Frutkin
Book Description
Edwin de Valu, an overworked editor at Panderic Press, is in trouble. The weekly editorial meeting isn't going well and he needs a hit for the upcoming fall season. In desperation he presents a previously rejected self-help manuscript, "What I Learned on the Mountain,"by Tupak Soiree.
Much to Edwin's chagrin, the project is accepted. But even from the early editorial stages there are ominous signs that the manuscript may be more than Edwin ever bargained for. A janitor who reads the manuscript is suddenly transformed into a millionaire philanthropist. After skimming through the paragraphs on "sexual realignment,"Edwin's wife eagerly turns their marriage bed into a passion pit of artful sexual techniques.
After publication, the book becomes an instant bestseller. But can this self-help book be the real thing? Dismayed by the plague of happiness that ensues, Edwin seeks to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Tupak Soiree and the book he unleashed on our unsuspecting world.
In this satirical, fast-paced novel, Ferguson skewers society's obsession with self-improvement and pokes fun at generational divides.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
If Only ...,
By
This review is from: Happiness: or Generica (Paperback)
On the up side, the concept is very very clever ï¿ What if a self-help book could really lead every reader to happiness? What would happen to the world?On the down side, most of the answers are depressingly obvious, or they seem so after every irony (some of them wonderful!) has been belabored a dozen different ways. I loved, for example, that the hero on which our author of ultimate-self-help actually models himself is the hell-raising actor Oliver Reed. But my amusement at the first round of reasons palled as the biographical details kept on coming ï¿ relevant but redundant. Worse, our experience of a world transformed is filtered exclusively through the experiences of publishing-world cynics who do not change. Trenchant points are made (and remade), but idealism shows up only to be mocked. How lucky for her fame and fortune that Ayn Rand, who wrote similarly melodramatic parables about social values, did not aspire to comedy! Social criticism is present in Generica, but it would take a gifted editor to carve a lean satire out of this flabby epic of humorishness.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hilariously written and a unique concept,
By A Customer
This review is from: Generica (Audio Cassette)
I laughed out loud reading this book. The writing style & timing is absolutely hilarious. The premise is a bit unbelievable, but it's supposed to be. It's a fictional "what if" and it's told, as it should be, from the viewpoint of a cynical editor. The idea that a Charles Mansonesque brainwashing con artist could change the world is laughable, but makes you wonder...could it happen? I'd recommend this book to anyone who craves a unique storyline and escape to a world that could be.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
More angry, urban male fiction - Worth your time!,
By LN (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Happiness: or Generica (Paperback)
'Generica' was much what I expected it would be - biting, 'gen-x' satire, with snide inside jokes at the popular culture of North America. It was also very much not what I expected - very funny, very insightful, and the author made it very clear he was well aware of the irony of the satire. It's also interesting that he neatly falls into the angry, urban male category he outlined for Canadian fiction in "How to Be a Canadian". A long time fan of Mr. Ferguson, I grudgingly admitted that I was entertained, and impressed, when finished. As a side note, I find it fascinating that the book had to be remarketed (is that even a word?) under the European title "Happiness" to increase its North American appeal, while it has been a huge success overseas. Another sad example of Canadian apathy. Keep it comin', Will.
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