Spectacular Happiness - by Peter D Kramer (Paperback)

About the Book

Finding himself the idealized center of a media circus, a terrorist who is also an English professor recounts his exploits in a letter to his estranged son. In this fictional debut, the author of "Listening to Prozac" brilliantly illuminates contemporary sensibilities and their often astonishing effects on the way lives unfold.

Book Synopsis

A daring, controversial novel that The New York Times hailed as "good fun" and full of "rewarding surprises," Spectacular Happiness entertains while raising challenging questions about what constitutes the good life. Booklist calls it a "stunning first novel."
Chip Samuels is an English teacher, part-time handyman, and devoted husband and father. He is also a one-man protest movement. Egged on by an ex-girlfriend, Chip has been blowing up trophy homes along the beaches of Cape Cod. The fastidiously crafted explosions capture the public's imagination -- and rather than being reviled as a terrorist, he finds himself the idealized center of a media circus.
Darkly intelligent, provocative, and compelling, Spectacular Happiness has been praised both as riveting storytelling and as masterful social criticism by one of the most respected observers of contemporary American culture.

Review Quotes

Chicago Tribune A terrific thriller plot...Kramer has a perceptive eye...in the small, telling details he chooses for his portraits.

Newsweek A serious novel of ideas.

Providence Journal An elegantly lyrical and provocative first novel.

Talk Deeply moving.

The Boston Globe The author of Listening to Prozac makes a fine novelist, telling a gripping story while at the same time commenting on the rich, radicals, politics, corruption, and the media.

The Christian Science Monitor The effect is something like reading Jaws from the shark's point of view....It's wacky and wicked and brilliant.

The Seattle Times This novel is a feast of big ideas, memorable characters, and heroic actions. It is a phenomenal fiction debut.

About the Author

Peter D. Kramer is clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University. He is the author of Should You Leave? and the international bestseller Listening to Prozac. He lives and practices in Providence, Rhode Island.