The Illicit Happiness of Other People: A Novel
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3.8 • 18 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A quirky and darkly comic take on domestic life in southern India.
The PEN Open Book Award called Manu Joseph "that rare bird who can wildly entertain his readers as forcefully as he moves them." In The Illicit Happiness of Other People, Joseph brilliantly brings his talents to the story of an Indian Christian family living far afield in south India.
It has been three years since seventeen-year-old Unni Chacko mysteriously fell from a balcony to his death. His family—journalist father Ousep, who smokes two cigarettes at once “because three is too much”; mother Mariamma, who fantasizes gleefully about murdering her husband; and twelve-year-old love-struck brother Thoma with zero self-esteem, have coped by not coping. When the post office delivers a comic drawn by Unni that had been lost in the mail, Ousep, shocked out of his stupor, ventures on a quest to understand his son and rewrite his family’s story.
Combining family drama with philosophy, social satire with satisfying storytelling, The Illicit Happiness of Other People reminds us that the greatest mystery of all—the one most worth our time and energy—is understanding the people we love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Indian author Joseph's smart new novel, after 2010's PEN/Open Book Award winning Serious Men, is laced with black humor and keen observations on human nature. Three years after 17-year-old Unni Chacko, a budding cartoonist, plunged from his third-floor terrace, his father, Ousep, resumes his obsessive search for the truth behind his death, using his son's funny and contemplative comics as guides in his quest through modern-day India. Ousep, a journalist, spends his days interrogating those who knew Unni, and his nights drunkenly waking his neighbors upon his return home. His wife, Mariamma, tries to protect their younger son, Thoma, from Ousep's harmless but humiliating alcoholic rages, while Thoma struggles to impress the beautiful Mythili, one of the brothers' closest friends. What Ousep discovers, after interviewing Unni's friends, fellow artists, teachers, and anyone else he can track down, is a deeply thoughtful teenager burdened by weighty existential quandaries. Joseph's rich characters intersect in moments of tenderness, yet each continues along a path that gracefully highlights the titular Other and the emotional divides that separate individuals. Lucky for us, Joseph's empathic prose deftly bridges those gaps.
