Happiness [Paperback]

Will Ferguson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Canada, Limited/Viking (2007)
• ISBN-10: 0143056964
• ISBN-13: 978-0143056966
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent rather than clever, April 13, 2003

By 

Vincent Poirier (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Happiness (Hardcover)

A good first novel from Ferguson, who offers intelligent comments on life and people. We follow Edwin de Valu, mediocre editor, through the ordeal of finding and publishing the ultimate self-help book: the one that works!

And here we already have the best things about Happiness(TM)--its title and premise. The rest of it is good, but not as good. Ferguson comments intelligently but not cleverly. Some of the supporting characters are colorful, in general they are well developed, and the plot is consistent. Everything is good, polished, well presented, and so on and so forth. But the novel feels contrived, it doesn't have the wit of Ferguson's non-fiction books.

On the minus side, Ferguson is a little preachy. He gives his own recipe for happiness, a seize-the-moment philosophy of life. Ferguson probably didn't intend this ironical twist, but his attack on self-help literature can be read as the author's advice to the world on how people can be happy, i.e. get away from self-help schemes. Sounds like self-help to me.

I so wanted to love this novel! I've been a Ferguson junkie ever since I picked "Bastards and Boneheads" as a quick travel read; he showed me the light and I am a born-again Canadian because of him. So maybe I expected too much. As it is, I moderately liked it. Three stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous, Satirical, Thoughtful, Happiness (tm), March 19, 2003

By 

S.Morgan (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happiness (Hardcover)

The simple premise of this deeper-the-expected book is summed up in the prolog, "If anyone wrote a self-help book that actually worked, we'd all be in trouble." The way this plays out is the main draw of the book. I could not anticipate what would happen next, and at the end, was not all that sure if I had got what I expected.

The writing style of the book is a mish mash - it flips back and forth between tenses and at times has the narrator talking to the reader. I learned quickly not to trust the author - his description of a publishing company's slush pile is undermined by the fact that Will Ferguson's first three books were plucked from the slush pile. I also learned not to expect much from the flawed main characters, wishy-washy Edwin and predictable May, but read on to see how the story would progress and ultimately end.

I was most struck by the burst of insight that did sneak in. For instance, "...ethics isn't about choosing between right and wrong;" a character in part three says, "it's about choosing between gray and gray."

Happiness (tm) was a good weekend book. The humor, at times reminiscent of a Simpsons eppisode or Matt Groening's "Life in Hell" series, does jab at the right targets. It doesn't hit them all the time, but is good entertainment none the less.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What I learned on a Ant Hill., June 17, 2002

By 

Michael McCreadie (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happiness (Hardcover)

Happiness (Generica as I know it) by Canadian Author Will Ferguson was the book responsible for ending a long drought of unsatisfacory reading for myself. A definite GEM!
One of the only books to bring me to a loud laugh in public.
His characters are both very human and very funny. A sad but what I believe to be true scenario about how our industries pray and profit from human vices and weaknesses.
A must read!
A much better self help book than a self help book!