The Happiness Code [Hardcover]

Amy Herrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2003

Her acclaimed story collection, At the Sign of the Naked Waiter, showcased Amy Herrick's gift for language, exuberant humor, and boundless imagination. In her charming debut novel, The Happiness Code, that gift has come to fruition.

"A few days or a few years" into the future, an ordinary Brooklyn family is going about the business of living. Pinky longs for a second child, but her husband, Arthur, broods unceasingly about the sorrows of the planet and feels it needs fewer people on board, not more. They are both seeking happiness in their own way-as are the novel's other indelibly drawn characters, from catastrophe-minded seven-year-old Teddy and Oedipus the family cat to Pinky's abrasive forensic psychologist friend, Fran. It is the discovery of a perfectly happy abandoned baby in their garden, and then his disappearance, that changes all their lives. The Happiness Code is at once a romance, a mystery, and a fairy tale-laced with hard questions about destiny and its new challenger, biotechnology.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Genetic experimentation yields an amazing result: a happy baby who transforms lives. Herrick's effervescent first novel (after the short fiction collection At the Sign of the Naked Waiter), a blend of fantasy, mystery and domestic comedy, is set in near-future New York City and populated with characters that are as endearing as they are eccentric. Ken Fishhammer, a fanatical bioengineer, hopes to eliminate unhappiness by tinkering with the human genome and "shaping the human disposition." Marina, his lab assistant, merely yearns to have a happy baby. She mixes the contents of one of Ken's petri dishes with a sperm donation from Arthur Sorenson, a co-worker. Arthur, who has resisted his wife's pleas to have a second child, decides the sperm donation might be an easier way to "repay the common human debt"-plus he feels sorry for Marina, a refugee from "a certain highly destabilized Eastern European country." Not long after the baby's arrival, Marina dies in a freak accident and the child lands in Arthur's own backyard, the answer to wife Pinky's prayer. Teddy, their seven-year old son, a pint-sized scientist (he's been making a formula for invisibility and finally got it to work on an ant) and his cat, Oedipus, aren't so thrilled with the cherub's arrival, but eventually even these two are won over by the sweet, contented tot. But Ken, along with his new patron, zillionaire Mitchell Newman, learns about the baby's origins and kidnaps him so he can be imprisoned and studied under lab conditions. The subsequent mayhem involved in the baby's rescue leads to an important discovery-"Happiness is a little thing.... It comes and goes. It's finding meaning that makes life worthwhile to people." Herrick manages to turn the high-concept premise into a genuinely diverting tale.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Happiness may be as elusive as a butterfly, as fragile as crystal, as precious as a newborn baby. Can it, however, be genetically programmed? Perhaps, and perhaps the baby with the preternaturally cheerful disposition whom Pinky and Arthur discover in their backyard holds the key, not only to their happiness, but to that of humanity as well. Already parents of precocious but oh-so serious seven-year-old Teddy, the couple disagrees about conceiving another child, and adopting the orphaned infant seems to neatly solve their dilemma. But as babies are wont to do, Bernard turns his world upside down. Set sometime in the near future, Herrick's mischievous morality tale is a bewitching parable on the true nature of delight and desire. Reminiscent of Alice Hoffman, Herrick's work is less mystical but no less magical, painting a world that shimmers with possibility, where human-shaped clouds appear almost at will and flamboyant flashes of light herald change. Every man, woman, child, and animal in Herrick's beguiling fantasy captivates with capricious charm in this enchanting examination of the essence of the human spirit and its potential for life-affirming joy. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (March 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670031976
• ISBN-13: 978-0670031979
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,088,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great one by Herrick-FINALLY, April 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Happiness Code (Hardcover)

Over 10 years ago I read At the Sign of the Naked Waiter by Amy Herrick and absolutely LOVED it! (It's still one of my favorites.) I'd check every now and then and see if she'd written another, but always no. Now she's finally come out with another book. I wish it didn't take her so long, but boy is it worth it. A fantastic story, interesting characters, and riveting plot development. And lots of philosophy, specifically on the issue of the importance of happiness. Really gets you thinking. Ms. Herrick does an incredible job of writing about everyday life (granted a little in the future), with just enough whimiscal happenings to remind you that anything is possible.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining read, August 15, 2005

By 

Kathleen Wagner (SWPA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Happiness Code (Hardcover)

I breezed through this one yesterday, and enjoyed every moment of it. This is not a book that will gather rewards, or one that will become a classic. I do predict that this is one of those books that you will pass around to friends and family, and suggest to someone looking for "just something to read"

Fun characters, interesting sideways sort of perspective, generally good fun.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking, October 27, 2005

By 

Sheryl A. Lemma (Sterling, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Happiness Code (Hardcover)

You've seen the summary and plot-line of the book in other reviews, so I won't rehash. I will tell you, though, what makes this book a five-star read for me is the question that the book poses -- and ultimately answers. Is all-encompassing happiness truly that desirable? I don't want to spoil the plot points that spell out the answer (though it's never shoved down your throat), but I think we all know the answer anyway. Pain and suffering may very well be necessary in order to exist.

This was an easy book to read, but a hard one to forget. I am a speed reader, and rarely remember fine points, or even the titles of some of the books I have read. But this one ... this one sticks in my mind, and comes up at odd times. I challenge you to read "The Happiness Code" and not do the same.