Happiness TM

"The Age of Nice is at hand, and there's nothing we can do about it." But the main protagonist of Will Ferguson's Happinesss 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. Not just the murderous cartel of drug and tobacco barons who want Edwin's head on a plate. Also 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 realise, except that Happiness clubs its readers into submission with the sort of zany, almost other-worldly wit that makes us profoundly glad to be alive. --Matthew Baylis

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Tears Will stream down your face from to much laughter - Rated
and your sides will split, thats if you have anything of a sense of
humour if you do not find this book funny, ill take it as red your
the kind of person who thinks jim davidsons talented. this book had
me totally hooked from start to finish, the observations will makes
in this book are both sharp and funny,is there any limit to this
mans wit, if you have not read this and enjoy black humour go and buy
this NOW, alternatively you could by jim davidsons-how to be obvious
and bland

laboured in-joke - Rated
Whilst an easy and enjoyable enough read, this supposed biting satire on the publishing industry and the self-help genre in particular is neither biting nor satirical. It is a laboured in-joke written from within the system, and reads exactly like a novel written by an editor; it's narrative never in danger of making a striking simile or cogent observation before the schizophrenic narrator criticises its composition. Its humour is obvious, and the promising premise never explored with much determination nor feeling.

Great novel - Rated
This self help book really does work, and li bok, come on.

But when what works for most people can't work for everyone. That is what this book teaches us. A fluke ridden too far.

Tis book was one of my favorite novels, and i've read a lot. I couldn't put it down, i stayed up all night finishing it. It was that good.

If you read one book during your lifetime, make it Will Ferguson's Happyness (tm)

Self-help book with money-back guarantee - Rated
Edwin de Valu is your typical American Gen-X anti-hero. Each day he stumbles out into the roar of a city he hates, to a job he hates, with a baby-boomer boss he hates. He lives beyond his means in a trendy rehabbed neighbourhood with a wife he, well, doesn't like very much. It's the contemporary, urban, American dream! As editor of the non-fiction division of Panderic Books, Edwin is put on the spot during a meeting. He has been promising an idea to fill the gap in Panderic's up-coming catalogue - 'What I Learned on the Mountain', by Tupak Soiree, is a typewritten manuscript covered with stick-on daisies and a hand written note on the bottom of the title page, which reads, "Live, Love, and Learn". Hardly the kind of sentiment Edwin is likely to applaud, but it's too late, he's pitched it and his boss loves it.

This turns out to be a self-help book actually works. Its readers become fabulously rich, quit smoking, and have enhanced sexual prowess. Unfortunately, it turns out that a society full of enriched, happy people has dire consequences. Oprah and the founders of buddhism and New Age would think again, if they read this book.

The humour in Happiness TM is needless to embrace - from Canada to Denmark via England, Ferguson's laissez-faire satire proves itself universally insightful. Now, for the idea of this anti-hero being the Satre of 21st century... perhaps. He enlights the issues of instant gratifaction/gloricifation and concludes that our vices make us the protagonists we are - not by mocking the people who try and fail, but the people who succeed. For people like me who hate the way the world's turning - this is a must-read.

Very entertaining read - Rated
I normally read one book a year, but this book took me all of three days. I couldn't put it down. I bought it because my wife is very much into the self help culture. I recognised her and her friends on every page.