Spectacular Happiness A Novel [Paperback]

A daring, controversial novel thatThe New York Timeshailed as good fun and full of rewarding surprises, Spectacular Happinessentertains while raising challenging questions about what constitutes the good life. Booklist calls it a stunning first novel.
Chip Samuels is an English teacher, part-time handyman, and devoted husband and father. He is also a one-man protest movement. Egged on by an ex-girlfriend, Chip has been blowing up trophy homes along the beaches of Cape Cod. The fastidiously crafted explosions capture the public's imagination -- and rather than being reviled as a terrorist, he finds himself the idealized center of a media circus.
Darkly intelligent, provocative, and compelling,Spectacular Happinesshas been praised both as riveting storytelling and as masterful social criticism by one of the most respected observers of contemporary American culture.Peter D. Krameris clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University. He is the author ofShould You Leave?and the international bestsellerListening to Prozac.He lives and practices in Providence, Rhode Island.Chapter One: Calling

I saw you today on the midday news: a teenage boy, skinny body draped in an oversized Chicago Bulls shirt, eyes shaded by a Swoosh cap, matching red, with brim curved just so. I knew you instantly, before the label was added to the picture, before you spoke. I was struck by an emotion that had more force than direction. It could as easily have been despair as elation. A phrase ran through my mind:already grown.Words that toward the end of his life my father repeated when he caught sight of me. In the midst of disorientation, what abides is wonder at a child's taking adult form.

You looked thinner than I had imagined. The effect of Ritalin, I suppose. You were taller than the reporter, so it seems not to have stunted your growth. Like a daytime talk-show hostess, the reporter promptel“Á