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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Why would there be a contract out on Edwin de Valu's life? Edwin -- the wiry low-level editor at Panderic Press. Why has rage disappeared from the roads and McDonald's gone alfalfa? How come everyone seems so damn happy? And most importantly, who, or what, is Tupak Soiree?

When an enormous self-help manuscript lands on Edwin's desk, it's headed for the trash. Edwin's cynicism of self-help books, coupled with his filthy mood that morning, results in him dismissing Tupak Soiree's What I Learned on the Mountain and using it as a doorstop. However, Tupak's manuscript is unique -- a self-help book that actually works. Before Edwin knows it, a chain of events begins that affects not only his own life but the world at large.

For those who choke on Chicken Soup for the Soul or have choice words for Dr. Phil, Will Ferguson offers up a killer dose of Happiness™ -- a masterpiece of comic fiction.

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Review:

"The Age of Nice is at hand, and there's nothing we can do about it." But the protagonist of Will Ferguson's Happiness, 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. There's the murderous cartel of drug and tobacco barons who want Edwin's head on a plate, as well as 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 realize, except that Happiness clubs its readers into submission with the sort of zany, almost otherworldly wit that makes us profoundly glad to be alive. --Matthew Baylis, Amazon.co.uk

From the Back Cover:

Edwin de Valu, an overworked and underpaid editor at New York's Panderic Press, is in trouble. He needs a hit for the coming season. In desperation he stakes his flagging career on a rambling self-help manuscript that promises its readers endless wealth, effortless weight loss and everlasting happiness. To Edwin's surprise, Tupak Soiree's magnum opus not only becomes a runaway bestseller but ushers in the global cult of "Happiness" (a word now trademarked by Panderic Press). It's up to Edwin to save American from Tupak (the "Stalin of the New Age") and his "neutron bomb of love."

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