The Happiest People in the World

by Brock Clarke
337 pgs

In 2012 the UN Conference on Happiness commissioned a study to determine who were the happiest people in the world. The report came back and designated the Danes as the holders of that title. With that as background, Brock Clarke's latest book begins with a series of events that seem eerily precognitive, given the recent events with Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Jens Baedrup is an editorial cartoonist for a minor newspaper in Denmark, whose life is turned upside down after he draws a political cartoon featuring the prophet Muhammad in a less-than-favorable light. Enraged terrorists blow up the newspaper he works for and burn his house to the ground. Believed to have been killed by the arsonist terrorists, Jens leaves his wife--whose response to whether she could go the rest of her life pretending that he was dead was, "I can do that"--and his life behind, and is relocated to America by Danish security agents.

His name is changed to Henry, he's given a bus ticket to Broomeville, New York, and given the job of guidance counselor at the local junior-senior high school. What Henry doesn't know, is that he's not the only citizen of Broomeville that has a secret past. Several of its citizens are clandestine CIA agents living double lives, and the principal of the school he works for used to be having an affair with the Danish security agent that spirited Henry out of Denmark and lined up his new job. Never having fully forgiven her husband for having his affair, the principal's wife begins having her own affair, with Henry.

Meanwhile, back in Denmark, one of the terrorists experiences a change of heart and seeks out Jens' "widow" to confess to her his crime and clear his conscience. In doing so, he discovers that Jens did not die and is immediately so enraged over the needless guilt he had been carrying for so long, he decides he's going to kill Jens again.

I've read two of Clarke's previous books: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England and Exley and enjoyed both of them a lot. This one is just as good. It has the tone and feel of a Coen Brothers' movie. Fans of the movie or series Fargo should enjoy it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Brock Clarke

Brock Clarke teaches creative writing at Bowdoin College in Maine and is the author of three novels: The Ordinary White Boy, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, and most recently Exley. I have yet to read the first one, but the other two were both exellent and unique enough that I wanted to ask him some questions about his writing. Here's what he had to say:

I've read your last two books and the thing that stood out to me the most in both of them was the main character. Both Sam Pulsifer and Miller Le Ray were very intriguing and not what I'd consider typical protagonists. What was the reaction you received from your readers regarding them?

The reaction has been mostly positive. I mean, if you like these books, then you like their narrators, and I'm supposing the opposite is true, too. And when I say "like" I mean aesthetically (which is to say, people like the way they're written) and also, I guess, personally. I only mention this because occasionally people complain that my characters/narrators are unlikable. By which I think they mean that my characters/narrators are not people they necessarily want to marry, or something. And my reaction to that is, good: because sometimes the people we marry would make bad characters.

While reading both of those books, I spent most of the book wondering how much of what was going on was reality or merely a product of the main characters' imaginations. Before you write the book, do you have the story pretty well mapped out in your mind from beginning to end, or how much do the story and the characters evolve during the writing process?

I don't have it mapped out, for better or worse. I had a clearer conception of things with Exley--about what was going on in Miller's head, and what the reality was--and I ended up writing a fairly finished first draft pretty quickly. But then, upon smart second look, I realized that my conception of things was a little too certain, and that what was going on outside Miller's head wasn't as clear as it needed to be for the reader. Which is where Doctor Pahnee ended up coming on. He was the best thing that happened to that book's second draft: he became a reader's advocate, even though he himself is not necessarily totally reliable.

With Arsonist's Guide, I had nothing mapped out, which ended up getting me into considerable trouble with my early drafts, after which I was in total despair. But then, once I hit upon Sam's voice, things came relatively easily and plot points appeared as needed, which is sometimes better than as planned.

Both Sam and Miller seemed to have a difficult time dealing with and accepting the world around them as it actually was and tried to make it conform to their own senses of reality. Where does your inspiration for characters like that come from? How much do you think all of us do that to one extent or another?

I think that's true of some of us. I wouldn't want to presume to speak for the entire human race. But for me, the most interesting people--on page, and otherwise--have a difficult time dealing with and accepting the world around them. Because when they try to change the world, or lie about it, or themselves, then odd things happen, and then other people react to odd things happening, and before you know it you have a book, or a life.

What type of a reaction to your books do you hope for when you write them?

Universal admiration. But I'll settle for, and welcome, random bits of praise from strangers over the internet. I do love that. Although universal admiration would also be pretty great.

What can you say about what you're working on right now and when might it be published?

I'm working on a novel called The Happiest People in the World. It's about people from Denmark and also people from upstate New York, and also terrorists, cartoonists, and high school guidance counselors. It's due to my publisher within the year. It's actually due within the half year, but I'm just going to go ahead and say "within the year" and hope that sticks.

Exley

Exley by Brock Clarke

I loved Exley. I think I should be clear and up-front about that at the very beginning because the book itself is anything but "clear" and "up-front". Those who choose to read the book should be prepared for a different type of reading experience. The book has two narrators: young Miller Le Ray, a nine-year-old whose parents have separated and who is seeing a therapist, and the second is the therapist himself.

Miller believes that when his father and mother separated, that his father joined the army and was shipped off to Iraq. He also believes that his father was wounded in Iraq and is currently recovering in the local VA hospital. Clarke borrows heavily from an actual book that achieved cult status in the '60s called A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley. Miller's father is obsessed with Exley's book and Miller believes the if he can track down Exley and bring him to his father, that his father will miraculously recover and that the pieces of his life will be put together again.

Clarke alternates between the viewpoint of Miller and his therapist. and does an excellent job of blurring the line between what is real and what are the fantasies of a young child's mind who has created them in an attempt to deal with the world and its disappointments.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆