Synopses & Reviews
Ousep Chacko, journalist and failed novelist, prides himself on being "the last of the real men." This includes waking neighbors upon returning late from the pub. His wife Mariamma stretches their money, raises their two boys, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasizes about Ousep dying. One day, their seemingly happy seventeen-year-old son Unni--an obsessed comic-book artist--falls from the balcony, leaving them to wonder whether it was an accident. Three years later, Ousep receives a package that sends him searching for the answer, hounding his son's former friends, attending a cartoonists' meeting, and even accosting a famous neurosurgeon. Meanwhile, younger son Thoma, missing his brother, falls head over heels for the much older girl who befriended them both. Haughty and beautiful, she has her own secrets. --a smart, wry, and poignant novel--teases you with its mystery, philosophy, and unlikely love story.
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"Starred review. Joseph writes with extraordinary wit, cunning and sympathy about both family relationships and ultimate mysteries." Kirkus Reviews
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"Joseph's prose is exquisitely phrased without an excess of sentimentality.... The confident, immersing voice of promises readers this is not the last we've heard of Manu Joseph." Malcolm Forbes Star Tribune
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"The novel is an admirable blend of plot and ideas, of a story that reads like a mystery but also of the kind of philosophical and social observations that are worth pausing for and underlining. ...Indeed, with , Joseph has made a convincing case for exploring the depths of joy the way so many of his predecessors have plunged into melancholy." Jaime Netzer
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"Wonderful... ...injects dark, rueful laughter into an immensely touching story of loss." The Telegraph (UK)
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" is ambitious. It is the story of a family getting to know itself, of a socialist India that no longer exists and of a society obsessed with grades. It is a plot-driven yarn with themes of morality, sexuality, psychiatry and yet more science and philosophy.... But it does not feel overburdened.... Quite an achievement." Wall Street Journal
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" is both a terribly funny and deeply sad story.... Beautifully written.... Manu Joseph perfectly captures his characters in his precise, sharp prose." The Economist
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"Ingeniously constructed.... [Joseph is] using his witty, incisive writing to explore the great philosophical questions of happiness and life." Ariel Balter New York Journal of Books
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"Joseph's smart new novel is laced with black humor and keen observations on human nature... Joseph's rich characters intersect in moments of tenderness." Manil Suri, author of The City of Devi
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"Sublime.... Joseph's witty narrative adds depth and vigor to the Chacko family's tale and assuredly explores the complexity of self-perception amid present-day life." Publishers Weekly
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"Fusing ribald farce with poignant drama... Joseph deftly rotates narrative points of view... [and] embellishes each strand with vibrant dabs of local color... that help showcase India in all its sublime and absurd glory.... Wild, irreverent and blackly comic." Leah Strauss Booklist
Synopsis
A quirky and darkly comic take on domestic life in southern India.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Manu Joseph, who lives in New Delhi, is a columnist for the International Herald Tribune. His first novel, Serious Men, won the PEN/Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.