BOOK: Happiness™ - Will Ferguson

Title: Happiness™ (originally published as 'Generica*')
Author: Will Ferguson
Genre: novel
Publisher: Canongate, 2003 (*Penguin 2001)
Pages: Paperback, 309
Language: English
Rating: 8/10
Summary: Edwin de Valu is an editor for self-help books. His job is to go through manuscripts and find the next big thing, or at least the book that will make the publisher some money. Edwin hates his job, his wife, his life. When he once again fucks up at a meeting and needs to impress his boss fast, he desperately mentions a massive manuscript he had already dismissed as worthless. The author promisses it will be the self-improvement book that will make every other book redundant. It offers solutions for EVERYTHING: how to stop smoking, become rich, lose weight, how to have a phenomenal sex life, etcetera. To Edwin's relieve the book is a best-seller. What's even more of a surprise: it seems to work! Suddenly there’s a shift in the country; people actually manage to stop smoking, they make money, they lose weight. As for the phenomenal sex life... exactly: everyone is… happy. It's annoying and unnatural. It has to stop.

Review
I LOVED IT! The book starts as a satire on the publishing industry with lots of (in)jokes at the expense of editors. It's so filled with sarcasm that at first I wondered how the manuscript was approved. After a couple of pages I knew why: it's brilliantly written. Although there are some very absurd scenes, most of the conversations, day-dreams and especially the inner monologues are very recognizable. Since I'm a true cynic I of course did not buy that self-help crap for a minute. If those methods worked, there wouldn't be any of those books, isn't that ironic.
I found it very amusing to read about a world where life is turned upside down and was very pleased to be confirmed in my suspicion that nothing good could come of it. I was as irritated as the main character about the happiness cult. I understood completely why he couldn't just let it be. But I did feel he stepped out of character at the final third of the book. It was hard to go along with the story and it was quite a drop from the high I felt while reading the first part of the book.
But even if I was a bit unsettled by the solution, this book is still very much recommended. I will definitely check out other work by Will Ferguson. I just hope his next editor will be a bit more on his case *g*.