The Illicit Happiness of Other People: A Novel

by Manu Joseph

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393344653
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	12/31/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	830 KB

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.

Editorial Reviews

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. Agent: Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Illicit Happiness of Other People 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."

The Economist

"Ingeniously constructed…[Joseph is] using his witty, incisive writing to explore the great philosophical questions of happiness and life."

Manil Suri

"Wonderful…The Illicit Happiness of Other People…injects dark, rueful laughter into an immensely touching story of loss."

Wall Street Journal

"Joseph’s prose is exquisitely phrased without an excess of sentimentality…The confident, immersing voice of Illicit Happiness promises readers this is not the last we’ve heard of Manu Joseph."

Telegraph (UK)

"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."

Star Tribune - Malcolm Forbes

"The Illicit Happiness of Other People is both a terribly funny and deeply sad story…Beautifully written…Manu Joseph perfectly captures his characters in his precise, sharp prose."

New York Journal of Books - Ariel Balter

"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."

Booklist - Leah Strauss

Still baffled by the apparent suicide of his 17-year-old son three years earlier, a henpecked father tries to make sense of his son's quest for meaning in multicultural Madras.

Library Journal

Ousep Chacko searches for the meaning of the death of his son Unni, who three years earlier had fallen--or perhaps thrown himself?--off a balcony. A reporter with United News of India, Ousep has become obsessed with discovering the events surrounding his son's death. There's no question that Unni had some strange quirks, but it's not clear to Ousep whether his views and behavior were unconventional or bizarre enough to sustain a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Unni had died at the age of 17 and had shown some talent as an artist, especially as a cartoonist, so Ousep starts to scrutinize some of his son's cartoons, hoping to find hints of his fate. In one disturbing series, Unni depicted friends and family as corpses, and he had cryptically confessed to a friend: "I know a corpse." Another series also preys on Ousep's mind, a sequence of cartoons with "bubbles" for dialogue, though Unni had not had time to ink in the words, so the story he intended to create remains forever perplexing and elusive. Ousep becomes convinced that the secret of his son's demise lies with two of his friends, Sai and Somen, so he pursues them relentlessly, almost to the verge of stalking. He pumps them for information that they're unwilling to yield--though perhaps they know nothing at all. Ousep begins to haunt Somen's house at all hours, trying to catch a glimpse of him and engage him in conversation, but Somen's parents continually deny that he's home. Finally, at the end of the novel, Somen emerges from his room, where he's remained for the previous two years, to explain to Ousep Unni's unnerving and elliptical take on reality. Joseph writes with extraordinary wit, cunning and sympathy about both family relationships and ultimate mysteries.

Kirkus Reviews