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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Happy Stories, Mostly
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 3 reviews on
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize, Happy Stories, Mostly introduces "one of the most important Indonesian writers today" (Litro Magazine). These twelve short stories ask what it means to be almost happy--to nearly find joy, to sort-of be accepted, but to never fully grasp one's desire. Joy shimmers on the horizon, just out of reach.
An employee navigates their new workplace, a department of Heaven devoted to archiving unanswered prayers; a tourist in Vietnam seeks solace following her son's suicide; a young student befriends a classmate obsessed with verifying the existence of a mythical hundred-foot-tall man. A tragicomic collection that probes the miraculous, melancholy nature of survival amid loneliness, Happy Stories, Mostly considers an oblique approach to human life: In the words of one of the stories' narrators, "I work in the dark. Like mushrooms. I don't need light to thrive."
Book Details
- Publisher: Feminist Press
- Publish Date: Jun 6th, 2023
- Pages: 168
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 7.90in - 4.80in - 0.60in - 0.40lb
- EAN: 9781952177057
- Categories: • World Literature - Southeast Asia• LGBTQ+ - Gay• Short Stories (single author)
About the Author
Norman Erikson Pasaribu is a Toba Batak writer of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Happy Stories, Mostly (translated by Tiffany Tsao) won the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
Tiffany Tsao translates Indonesian fiction and poetry. Her translations of Norman Erikson Pasaribu's fiction have won the Republic of Consciousness Prize in the UK and been longlisted for the International Booker Prize. She is also the translator of Budi Darma's People from Bloomington (Penguin Classics 2022). She also writes novels, the most recent of which is The Majesties (Atria Books 2020). She lives in Sydney.
More books by Norman Erikson Pasaribu
What people are saying
translation/writing/interviews/NY/NL/AU sarah@sarahtimmerharvey.com
"Humor, because of its format and formula, desanctifies things. It puts images that people see as sacred in a less serious manner. It gives you power and room to criticize." - Norman Erikson Pasaribu https://t.co/Vuy0kHPvIW
Annual short story comp with anthology publication and cash prizes open to writers worldwide. 2023 BSSP won by Abhishek Sengupta
"Norman Erikson Pasaribu Masters the Art of the Short Story in Their Collection ‘Happy Stories, Mostly’" https://t.co/LQOitw9UaE
Creating a world where everyone recognizes themselves in a book.
"For its playfulness, its ambition, and the way it builds its sorrow-bricks into stories that confront head-on challenging situations and emotions, this is a collection that deserves to be read and re-read" Thanks @BookReviewsAsia for this glowing review https://t.co/QvZlHQmwTu
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"A
beautiful collection that refuses to shy away from the often complex
and difficult queer experience... Parasibu's is a promising new voice." --Kirkus Reviews"A perfect mix of surreal micro-fiction and thought-provoking narratives, Happy Stories, Mostly will stick with you for a long time." --Bustle"[Pasaribu] has found a way to construct something new out of tales of loss." --The New York Times"Immersive stories that make the impossible feel true." --Words Without Borders"Happy Stories, Mostly navigates queer suffering with a deep supply of tenderness and humour - and with empathy for all its characters." --Exberliner Magazine"An enticing collection, where the smallest pedestrian acts--such as finding a secret journal or getting a cubicle to work in--have the power to force characters to question their internalized biases." --Asymptote Journal"As a collection of stories that shine a spotlight on contemporary queer Indonesian life, the works within leave a deep, ruminating impression." --International Examiner"Exquisite... Tsao's affinity for Pasaribu's personality, literary tone, and rhythm beautifully illuminates Pasaribu's ingenuity as an author." --Asia Media International"Cerebral, playful, abrasive yet tender--there are not enough adjectives to describe Happy Stories, Mostly. Every page crackles with energy in Tiffany Tsao's brilliant translation. Norman Erikson Pasaribu takes risks big and small, and somehow, magically, lands them all." --YZ Chin, author of Edge Case
Praise for Previous Work:
"Pasaribu tells a truth plain and human, stripped to reveal its strangeness, its absurdity, its pain. . . A quiet but rigid resistance against that world's desire to maim the queer spirit." --Singapore Review of Books
"The book's formal diversity, epigraphs, mixing of genres, signal to a medley of
traditions that cannot easily be explained as a singular poetry from the 'margins.' By referencing Indonesian writers like Wiji Thukul alongside Herta Müller and Richard Siken, Sergius Seeks Bacchus emerges not from the sidelines but from within the continuous and intertextual script of transnationalism." --The Poetry Review
"Literally and metaphorically driven underground by unorthodox desires, Pasaribu's primary stance is seeking; theirs is a restless questing as his cast of characters search for a shared history that is textually present but remains elusively out of reach." --Mascara Literary Review
"A new and magical voice emerging in literature, yet one almost preternaturally wise, profoundly celebratory of the history and possibility of poetry." --Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and Damascus
What people are saying
translation/writing/interviews/NY/NL/AU sarah@sarahtimmerharvey.com
"Humor, because of its format and formula, desanctifies things. It puts images that people see as sacred in a less serious manner. It gives you power and room to criticize." - Norman Erikson Pasaribu https://t.co/Vuy0kHPvIW