There is happiness

 

Title of the book: There is happiness

Author: Brad Watson

Publisher: W.W. Norton

Publishing Date: 2024 

ISBN: 978-1-324-07642-1

Summary:

A posthumous collection of beloved and never-before-read stories from a titan of contemporary Southern fiction. Darkly comedic, lyrically mighty, and unabashedly vulnerable, There Is Happiness brings together Brad Watson’s most celebrated pieces alongside new, unpublished works. Watson’s characters―often boys and brothers, fathers and sons―are shaped by oddities of nature, while nature itself communicates loudly. In these pages, dogs most certainly have their day, a one-eyed woman swims the breaststroke, and Dolly Parton holds the key to a convict’s salvation. Spouses grow apart while bitter landlords bang on the ceiling to quiet the creaking bedframe upstairs. Grotesque twins exercise in tandem, and two men drink to forget their dead wives (though “dead” is a relative term). Roller-coastering from the mournful to the hilarious (sometimes in the same paragraph) and steeped in both the Southern gothic tradition and a universal literature of the tragic, the beautiful, and the absurd, Watson’s stories waltz masterfully with surprising, lovely, and strange melancholy, infused with wit and bound by authenticity.

Author Info:

(From goodreads) 

N/A

TOC: 

Dying for Dolly

The zookeeper and the leopard 

Seeing eye 

Ludovico taking his bath

Binary eclipse 

Are you Mr. Lonelee 

Agnes of Bob 

Terrible argument 

Noon

Uncle Willem 

Aliens in the prime of their lives 

Eyekelboom 

Bill

Crazy horse 

Visitation

Last days of the dog men 

Apology 

There is happiness 

Personal Opinion:
Dont get me wrong, they are good and memorable stories, but I am not sure if I was the right person to read them. I have never heard of the author prior to this collection, but I can definitely tell that he is both talented and highly imaginative. In the collection of 18 stories, I did enjoy and like at least five; namely the Dolly story, the zookeeper, Ludovico, the aliens and last days of the dog men. Other stories were enjoyable, but I don't think they were for me though.   There is definitely a sense of fantastic elements to them, and besides the author and the setting of the South, I am not quite sure what the unifying theme should have been. If one is the authors fan or if one just wants to revisit poignant memories or stories, then one should read the stores. 

This was given for review 

3 out of 5

(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)