All the Happiness You Deserve - Softcover

Piafsky, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938849159 ISBN 13: 9781938849152

Publisher: Prospect Park Books, 2014

Synopsis

This dazzling debut novel follows its midwestern narrator from childhood to old age as he examines the touchpoints and transitions that define a life. Scotty's languorous journey takes him through the pivotal experiences common to so many American men: a middle-class childhood, college, marriage, fatherhood, cross-country moves, business success and failure, and aging. Piafsky frames his story with Tarot images that speak to the disconnectedness of society and the perplexing isolation of the human condition.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Piafsky is an associate professor and the director of creative writing at Spring Hill College in Alabama. The Montreal native earned an MA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from the University of Missouri. A former editor of the Missouri Review, Piafsky has published fiction and nonfiction in journals such as Meridian, Epic, and Bar Stories, among others, and an excerpt from All the Happiness You Deserve, his first novel, was published by the Jabberwock Review and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Review

"Brilliant . . . Michael Piafsky is a word wizard . . . with prose so dramatic and suspenseful that the book becomes impossible to put down." ―ForeWord Reviews

"Beautifully rendered. . . .Piafsky writes with precision, finding meaning, and even beauty, in both the mundane and dramatic elements of an ordinary life." ―Shelf Unbound
." ―Booklist

"Expertly weaves the ups and downs one encounters in a long life. . . . My summary doesn't do it justice. It would be like saying, "Marcel Proust was a gossip and a fan of pastries.' . . . Piafsky writes in such a way that you can feel the passage of time and the accumulation of life events, memories, regrets, and sorrow. . . . It is a solemn meditation on American masculinity." ―CCLaP- Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

"A long lovely poem of a book, a kind of literary kaleidoscope that reveals beautiful, intricate patterns with each turn of the page." ―LIAM CALLANAN, author of The Cloud Atlas and All Saints

"All the Happiness You Deserve is a terrific novel, one that succeeds in the rarest of ways: through a combination of experimentation and accessibility. It tells the story of a man's entire life, and in so doing reveals a great deal about the way we tell stories, to others and―most dangerously―to ourselves." ―CHRISTOPHER COAKE, author of You Came Back and We're In Trouble

"Through beautifully-written episodes, Michael Piafsky's novel All the Happiness You Deserve takes us right into the unavoidable melancholy of life." ―SAHAR DELIJANI, author of Children of the Jacaranda Tree

"Smart, playful, energetic . . . very funny when it's the appropriate time to be funny, and touching when the situation calls for it too." ―STEPHEN DIXON, Two-time National Book Award Finalist for Frog and Interstate

"A distinctive, insightful portrait of the everyday rhythms of life and the fragile, complicated threads that connect us, All the Happiness You Deserve is a wildly original, mesmerizing debut." ―AMY HATVANY, author of Heart Like Mine

"In Michael Piafsky's superb everyman novel All the Happiness You Deserve, all the big questions―fate, fortune, free-will, happiness, pain―spin round and round like a carnival Ferris wheel ride you hope will never end." ―MICHAEL KARDOS, author of The Three-Day Affair and One Last Good Time

"What I love about All the Happiness You Deserve is its gentle irony and humor. This book captures both a family's caring and the way it can descend into absolute chaos. Michael Piafsky is one of America's most promising young writers." ―SPEER MORGAN, author of The Freshour Cylinders

"Michael Piafsky finds the remarkable in seemingly unremarkable things. He is a poet of everyday details, and All The Happiness You Deserve is a beautiful, confident novel, full of unique and unexpected energy."; ―SCOTT O'CONNOR, author of Half World and Untouchable

"Michael Piafsky takes a deep and unflinching look into the soul of the average American male. In All the Happiness You Deserve, the narrative arc of an "ordinary" life is writ both large and small in the finely-wrought and telling details laid by the hands of a master-craftsman. Precise, amusing, and tragic―this is a remarkable debut." ―BRIAN PAYTON, author of The Wind Is Not a River

―With a pointillist painter's skill and vision, Michael Piafsky uses brief scenes to create a full canvas. All the Happiness You Deserve succeeds brilliantly on both a microscopic and telescopic level with the sum of its parts being greater than the whole―and yet somehow each part stands on its own as a perfect jewel, a flash of light. Using the ancient symbolic wisdom of the Tarot deck as a brilliant and haunting structure for this accomplished debut novel, Piafsky depicts the arc of a man's life from childhood to middle age, presenting his central character's destiny with both clarity and compassion." ―MARLY SWICK, author of The Summer Before the Summer of Love and Evening News
“Brilliant . . . Michael Piafsky is a word wizard . . . with prose so dramatic and suspenseful that the book becomes impossible to put down.” ―ForeWord Reviews

“Beautifully rendered. . . .Piafsky writes with precision, finding meaning, and even beauty, in both the mundane and dramatic elements of an ordinary life.” ―Shelf Unbound

“[A] wonderful read . . . delivered with a holism evocative of a John Irving novel.
Beautifully written and deeply rewarding.” ―Booklist

“Expertly weaves the ups and downs one encounters in a long life. . . . My summary doesn’t do it justice. It would be like saying, ‘Marcel Proust was a gossip and a fan of pastries.’ . . . Piafsky writes in such a way that you can feel the passage of time and the accumulation of life events, memories, regrets, and sorrow. . . . It is a solemn meditation on American masculinity.” ―CCLaP- Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

“A long lovely poem of a book, a kind of literary kaleidoscope that reveals beautiful, intricate patterns with each turn of the page.” ―LIAM CALLANAN, author of The Cloud Atlas and All Saints

“All the Happiness You Deserve is a terrific novel, one that succeeds in the rarest of ways: through a combination of experimentation and accessibility. It tells the story of a man’s entire life, and in so doing reveals a great deal about the way we tell stories, to others and―most dangerously―to ourselves.” ―CHRISTOPHER COAKE, author of You Came Back and We’re In Trouble

“Through beautifully-written episodes, Michael Piafsky’s novel All the Happiness You Deserve takes us right into the unavoidable melancholy of life.“ ―SAHAR DELIJANI, author of Children of the Jacaranda Tree

“Smart, playful, energetic . . . very funny when it’s the appropriate time to be funny, and touching when the situation calls for it too.” ―STEPHEN DIXON, Two-time National Book Award Finalist for Frog and Interstate

“A distinctive, insightful portrait of the everyday rhythms of life and the fragile, complicated threads that connect us, All the Happiness You Deserve is a wildly original, mesmerizing debut.” ―AMY HATVANY, author of Heart Like Mine

“In Michael Piafsky’s superb everyman novel All the Happiness You Deserve, all the big questions―fate, fortune, free-will, happiness, pain―spin round and round like a carnival Ferris wheel ride you hope will never end.” ―MICHAEL KARDOS, author of The Three-Day Affair and One Last Good Time

“What I love about All the Happiness You Deserve is its gentle irony and humor. This book captures both a family’s caring and the way it can descend into absolute chaos. Michael Piafsky is one of America’s most promising young writers.” ―SPEER MORGAN, author of The Freshour Cylinders

“Michael Piafsky finds the remarkable in seemingly unremarkable things. He is a poet of everyday details, and All The Happiness You Deserve is a beautiful, confident novel, full of unique and unexpected energy.” ―SCOTT O’CONNOR, author of Half World and Untouchable

“Michael Piafsky takes a deep and unflinching look into the soul of the average American male. In All the Happiness You Deserve, the narrative arc of an ‘ordinary’ life is writ both large and small in the finely-wrought and telling details laid by the hands of a master-craftsman. Precise, amusing, and tragic―this is a remarkable debut.” ―BRIAN PAYTON, author of The Wind Is Not a River

“With a pointillist painter’s skill and vision, Michael Piafsky uses brief scenes to create a full canvas. All the Happiness You Deserve succeeds brilliantly on both a microscopic and telescopic level with the sum of its parts being greater than the whole―and yet somehow each part stands on its own as a perfect jewel, a flash of light. Using the ancient symbolic wisdom of the Tarot deck as a brilliant and haunting structure for this accomplished debut novel, Piafsky depicts the arc of a man’s life from childhood to middle age, presenting his central character’s destiny with both clarity and compassion.” ―MARLY SWICK, author of The Summer Before the Summer of Love and Evening News

Edition details

• Publisher: Prospect Park Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1938849159
• ISBN 13: 9781938849152
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304