Book Summary: Happimess by Biswajit Banerji
Happimess is a collection of naughty stories that make us laugh while constantly poking fun at social peculiarities. Narrated mostly in the first person, the stories center around everyday situations that get oddly tangled up. Once frantic efforts are made to wriggle out, things only get more messy.
Flippant and irreverent, the net of satire is cast wide, spanning conspiring home-appliances, outlandish diseases, nosy insurance agents, die-hard hagglers, a botched farewell speech and the like. It is the constant undercurrent of funny disorderliness that serves to spice-up and unite the stories.
Book Review: Happimess by Biswajit Banerji
Broadly speaking, the book’s appealing styles and alluring plot-line bloomed an experience that was both enjoyable and intriguing to a reader like me. This factor dawned on me from the introduction of the book and was resonant until the end of the book. I don’t know what I was expecting with this collection. The stories were snarky, tongue-in-cheek, sardonic, sarcastic, biting. Yup, I think that about sums it up.
Happimess begins on a strong note combining humor, wit, creativity, and intelligence, wrapped in symbolism which lays the foundation for the rest of the stories. Varying in length and composition style; each story has a strong individualistic first person narrative voice as author is able to distinguish each character and story but yet maintain a smooth and cohesive strand. Naturally, some stories are more appealing than others but overall, Happimess by Biswajit Banerji is inevitably strong.
Also striking is that each story is different; and yet Happimess by Biswajit Banerji is not disjointed. For those readers who enjoy a dose of surrealism in short stories, Author Biswajit delivers with whimsy but not to the point where the narrative feels ‘fake’ or unnatural. Each story retains believability and is accessible.
Biswajit Banerji is master at meshing laugh-out-loud moments with deeper philosophy. The stories make the reader think and contemplate layers of topics while also entertaining on the simplest level. Author Biswajit’s text is rich, well-written, and best described as a creative voice. Happimess by Biswajit Banerji is a fresh and unique voice which is relatable and yet thought-provoking.
