Happy Stories, Mostly

Book / Collection of Short Stories

by Norman Erikson Pasaribu
Translated by Tiffany Tsao

Format: Paperback, English
page(s)
ISBN/ISBN13: /978-1-911284-63-5
Published Dec 01, 2021 by Tilted Axis Press

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Also see Cerita-cerita Bahagia, Hampir Seluruhnya

Playful, shape-shifting and emotionally charged, Happy Stories, Mostly is a collection of twelve stories that queer the norm. Inspired by Simone Weil’s concept of ‘decreation’, and often drawing on Batak and Christian cultural elements, these tales put queer characters in situations and plots conventionally filled by hetero characters.

The stories talk to each other, echo phrases and themes, and even shards of stories within other stories, passing between airports, stacks of men’s lifestyle magazines and memories of Toy Story 3, such that each one almost feels like a puzzle piece of a larger whole, but with crucial facts – the saddest ones, the happiest ones – omitted, forgotten, unbearable.

A blend of science fiction, absurdism and alternative-historical realism, Happy Stories, Mostly is a powerful puff of fresh air, aimed at destabilising the heteronormative world and exposing its underlying absences.

Awards in ‘Happy Stories, Mostly’ wins Republic of Consciousness Prize (Books+Publishing, May 12, 2022)

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.
— Rosie Milne in “Happy Stories, Mostly” by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Asian Review of Books, Apr 29, 2022)

Awards in Republic of Consciousness Prize 2022 shortlist announced (Books+Publishing, Mar 29, 2022)

Recos in A spotlight on works in translation (Readings – Blog, Mar 17, 2022)

Awards Lucy Knight in International Booker prize announces longlist ‘tracing ring around the world’ (Guardian, The, Mar 10, 2022)

Not all young poets succeed in the switch to fiction, but Pasaribu’s short story collection Happy Stories, Mostly is even more beguiling.
— Alexander Wells in Happy Stories, Mostly: A beguiling new collection from Norman Erikson Pasaribu (EXBERLINER Magazine, Feb 17, 2022)

All places, however, offer only temporary shelter, and all relationships are unreliable, doomed to change or expire. Possible endings are therefore open to further developments that can be better or worse than what we are currently experiencing. This being in flux seems to be a characteristic of humanity that opposes fixed social roles. The stories in the collection trace this journey deftly and with expertise.
— Carla Scarano D’Antonio in Happy Stories, Mostly (Litro Magazine, Jan 07, 2022)

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