Grab Instantly The Happy Man: A Tale Of Horror Brought To You By Eric C. Higgs Presented As Ebook
you ever wished that "American Psycho" was less, . . you know Bret Easton Ellisey and more like the "Twilight Zone" I didn't know that was an active wish of mine until reading "The Happy Man," a gleefully macabre little novel that explores the dark underbelly of upper middle class life.
Morbidly spectacular from its opening lines to the very last syllable, To reveal too much would risk ruining the The Happy Man's twists and turns, but suffice to say Valancourt Books has unearthed yet another underappreciateds horror gem, Wicked, gruesome, and enthralling. Somewhere between Apt Pupil and American Psycho, this was a delightful journey into suburban depravity, The Ripleys have new neighbours the Marshes and with their arrival, the small cosy town of Mesa Vista will never be the same, At first, the two couples become fast friends and the Ripleys are attracted to the charismatic and powerful Ruskin Marsh but soon their relationship grows darker with each passing day.
A simple barbecue turns into an orgy, Violence erupts. Gruesome murders are reported nearby, People begin to disappear. Finally Ruskin invites Charles Ripley to join his family in acts of murder and mutilation,
Starting with a terrific opening line The Marshes rotted in their house two full days before they were discovered by a delivery man from Sparkletts this shortnovel onlypages doesnt disappoint or let up at all.
Its told in first person by Charles Ripley, whos a wonderfully realised character and very easy to side with, especially when the book later takes several odd turns and he struggles to figure out whats going on and how he fits into things.
The characterisation is good across the board from Shelly Ripley, trying to recover from a miscarriage and Sybil Marsh, a vamp in every sense of the word to the minor characters, neighbours in the development who are given enough heft that you care and empathise with them and none more so than Ruskin Marsh himself.
Hes a superb character, a highflying lawyer by day and voracious sexual adventurer all the time his wife, others wives, random women he picks up, ladies he takes off other characters hands, an aesthete, purveyor of high quality drugs and a lover of guns.
Ruskin belongs to an exclusive club he calls the Society of Friends who appear to take their life philiosophy from De Sades Juliette or the Fortunes of Vice and when he hands a copy to Ripley notably a translated version, which apparently doesnt exist, Charles life begins to turn, with his attitude towards a woman at work who fancies him becomes much darker until she too is in mortal peril.
With some terrific setpieces the two women from the bar who drive off the road, meeting Angela in a funky restaurant, the skinnydipping, the illegal alien being tortured to death in the valley that we only hear, rather than see and a great sense of location both the Mesa Vista estate and San Diego in general this is assured and accomplished and a real page turner.
Told with good pace from the beginning, once the whole story starts to emerge its alluded to in the blurb, but is much bigger the book takes several shifts in tone until Ripley is forced into a position where he has nothing to lose and it ends as intense and bleak as it began.
A great little novel, told with style and wit and an eye for gruesome detail, this is well worth a read and Id highly recommend it.
Ive had this on my bookshelf sinceor so the Paperjacks edition published inwhere its survived house moves, book culls and everything else, but having now read it someyears after buying it, I wish Id done so ages ago.
Its also nice to read a book from the lates, a period of time I remember vividly, where characters are excited about home computers, large screen TVs and Atari systems.
What a fantastic, savage and creepy little book this was, Through the measured platonic seduction of Charles Ripley, Higgs throws us headlong into the dark heart of the human spirit, where cruelty and depravity lead to an ultimate happiness, but at the cost of the soul.
A tense atmosphere of unease tightens its hold on the reader, with endless blackly comic scenes of yuppie parties, middle class snobbery, discussions of art and philosophy, always with a sneaky, violent edge waiting to be unleashed.
I can't say much about this book without giving everything away, suffice to say that Higgs weaves a story with more skill and nuance inpages than many authors do inor more, with characters that feel terribly, horrifyingly real.
If you can find this rare book for a decent price, snatch it up and be prepared to discover the true secret to a happy life, Ripley is a happy man, living in the burbs ins, He's got a jacuzzi deck, a kingsize waterbed, a Mazda RX, and a wife with a flat belly, But Ripley's new neighbor, Ruskin, is happier, Ripley needs to know Ruskin's secret,
Ruskin got out of his chair and went to the bookcase, "Youd probably like to take a look at this,The book was written by in.
" He took out an old, leatherbound book and handed it over, "Consider this ransom for your lawn trimmer, "
It sounds like a worldshattering book, I want to be a happy man too, I would consider reading it if it weren'tpages, "The Happy Man" has one of the best opening lines ever, and a great first chapter that sends you spinning and disoriented into the rest of the tale.
Then it starts to feel more like a slow suspense thriller with a touch of Bentley Little,
However, there really isn't much "thrill" to be found here, Most of the book takes place in a few homes in a San Diego subdivision, with people working in their garages and drinking beer, or snorting cocaine and skinny dipping, or lusting after someone's buxom flirt of a wife at a cocktail party, or hanging out in the backyard jacuzzi smoking reefer.
But Eric Higgs does a great job of capturing the feel of middle class struggles for contentment and a sense of belonging, and the madness that may lie beneath the attempts to reach those virtues.
Behind every manicured lawn and freshly polished sport coup in the driveway may also be a borderline teenage daughter with daddy issues who gets hooked on drugs and becomes a prostitute, or a husband unable to look at his wife because he is hooked on porn, or an alcoholic wife who has decided to live a sham marriage because she has not the courage to come out of the closet.
As such, Higgs also captures the progression of addiction quite well, and in this case, the need for greater thrills leads to a horrific conclusion.
This book was unsettling but not as disturbing as many have claimed it to be, That being said, the bleak and nihilistic content can be a bit of a downer, as there are no sympathetic characters with any redeeming qualities, Similarly, I would not recommend this for someone sensitive to triggers regarding addiction or depression, "The Happy Man" is not happy reading,
But I felt this was one of the more thoughtful horrors I've encountered in quite a while, and so if that's what you are looking for, give this a try.
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