Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu

Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu

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.

"Pasaribu is one of the most important Indonesian writers today" --Litro Magazine "Happy Stories, Mostly ... navigates queer suffering with a deep supply of tenderness and humour - and with empathy for all its characters." --Exberliner Magazine "An enticing collection, where the smallest pedestrian acts--such as finding a secret journal or getting a cubicle to work in--have the power to force characters to question their internalized biases." --Asymptote Journal "Pasaribu tells a truth plain and human, stripped to reveal its strangeness, its absurdity, its pain. . . A quiet but rigid resistance against that world's desire to maim the queer spirit." --Singapore Review of Books "The book's formal diversity, epigraphs, mixing of genres, signal to a medley of traditions that cannot easily be explained as a singular poetry from the 'margins.' By referencing Indonesian writers like Wiji Thukul alongside Herta Muller and Richard Siken, Sergius Seeks Bacchus emerges not from the sidelines but from within the continuous and intertextual script of transnationalism." --The Poetry Review "Literally and metaphorically driven underground by unorthodox desires, Pasaribu's primary stance is seeking; theirs is a restless questing as his cast of characters search for a shared history that is textually present but remains elusively out of reach." --Mascara Literary Review "A new and magical voice emerging in literature, yet one almost preternaturally wise, profoundly celebratory of the history and possibility of poetry." --Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and Damascus

Norman Erikson Pasaribu is a Toba Batak writer of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Happy Stories, Mostly (translated by Tiffany Tsao) won the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. Tiffany Tsao translates Indonesian fiction and poetry. Her translations of Norman Erikson Pasaribu's fiction have won the Republic of Consciousness Prize in the UK and been longlisted for the International Booker Prize. She is also the translator of Budi Darma's People from Bloomington (Penguin Classics 2022). She also writes novels, the most recent of which is The Majesties (Atria Books 2020). She lives in Sydney.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781911284635
ISBN 10	1911284630
Title	Happy Stories, Mostly
Author	Norman Erikson Pasaribu
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Tilted Axis Press
Year published	2021-12-02
Number of pages	150
Prizes	Winner of Republic of Consciousness 2022, Commended for ALTA National Translation Award 2023, Commended for International Booker Prize 2022, Short-listed for Cercador Prize 2023
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable