The Happy Man

My original The Happy Man audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

In the opening moments of Eric C. Higgs's The Happy Man: A Tale of Horror, we learn of a murder - the Marsh family has been shot dead next door. We're told this by Charles Ripley, whose first-person account gives us insight into the San Diego neighborhood he inhabits. The victims next door are not the only murders this neighborhood has seen recently, and Ripley recounts the events leading up to this penultimate act of violence. In fact, strange things have been brewing ever since the Marshes moved in...

Outside of his marriage, Ripley doesn't have a lot of friends and few men he can connect with. He quickly bonds with the newly arrived Ruskin show more Marsh, and their wives form a fast friendship. As Ripley and Marsh become better acquainted with each other, Charles is introduced to a very rare work of writing from the sexual libertine Marquis de Sade. Entranced by Marsh's own sexual exploits and lack of inhibitions, Ripley soon finds his own constraints diminishing and begins straying into extramarital affairs and, soon enough, darker exploits encouraged in de Sade's writings.

Narrated by Matt Godfrey, The Happy Man is a slow-burn work of suburban horror that finely balances placidity with hair-raising, horrifying drama. This is a well-crafted work of psychosexual drama, and Godfrey's reading of the material captures the feel of a neighborhood friend telling you a crazy story. At only a bit over 5 hours long, Godfrey keeps the narrative moving along nicely. Higgs, meanwhile, keeps the work grounded, and the moments of horror are never implausible or outlandish. Higgs earns each of his twists and turns by giving us believable characters and a pot-boiler narrative that slowly builds toward the inevitable.

Written in 1985, and recently reissued by Valancourt Books, The Happy Man taps into the anxiety of The Other with its themes of sexual promiscuity, casual drug use, fear of immigrants, and the rise of the Christian Right and their idea of what constitutes family values. While this latter is never overtly mentioned, given the period Higgs was writing in I can't help but feel like much of this book is a response to the political climate surrounding it. Marsh is very much a hedonistic figure, the kind of guy Nancy Reagan would encourage you to Just Say No! to, and his arrival to this suburban neighborhood threatens to destroy everything his fellow yuppies hold dear, upsetting the balance of their perfectly coiffed all-American lifestyles. With its themes of racism and the sexual objectification of women, The Happy Man is very much a product of the 1980s, yet much of horrors its reacting to, and certainly expounding upon, still feel topical today. Higgs takes all the fears of 80s Evangelicalism and runs with them toward their worst-case finale - the destruction of families at the hands of an outsider. It's telling, though, that while Mexican immigrants are often blamed for some of the seedier aspects of this white collar, upper-crust San Diego subdivision, the root cause of their problems lie much, much closer to home. Perhaps, in between the moments of eroticism and shocking violence, Higgs was trying to tell us something after all.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator. show less

What a great pleasure to read this re published story some 30 years after the initial print run . In some ways I had become weary with the horror genre and was hoping that something fresh could grab my attention and rekindle my enthusiasm. The Happy Man is a classic edgy horror story that follows the fortunes of one suburban San Diego resident Charles Ripley. His everyday life is about to change when newcomer Ruskin Marsh and alluring wife Sybil move into the recently sold property next door. Charles is drawn unexpectedly to the charismatic lawyer Marsh a happy gregarious character not only an expert on art but also insatiable in his pursuit of young delectable females. The writings of the Marquis de Sade feature predominately in the show more world of Marsh and Charles offers himself as an eager scholar keen to understand and indeed partake in violent sexual acts depicted by De Sade.

What I particularly loved about this story was the build-up from a seemingly sedate middle class development to a world with no barriers where murder and sexual deviation are accepted as the norm. Was Charles Ripley prepared to sacrifice his home, job and wife in pursuit of excitement to feed his ever increasing need for gratification under the auspices of Ruskin Marsh? This is a great example of how horror can be used to structure the every ordinary day into a place of evil and pleasure with no responsibility nor limit. Many thanks to the good people at Valancourt Books for providing me with a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review. This small independent company specialize in rare neglected and out of print fiction promoting authors and works that might otherwise remain unknown. Recommended. show less

Short, sharp, and terrific horror novel! Written in the 1980s, it is a near-perfect horror tale for the Reagan era, showing the darkness dwelling just under the surface of modern American suburbia and the emptiness of the American dream to some of those who have achieved it.

I went into this knowing next to nothing about the plot, and that served me very well.

THE HAPPY MAN: A TALE OF HORROR is one bizarre piece of work from the 80's, brought back by Valancourt Books.

I finished this book on Saturday and I still am not sure what to make of it! A couple moves in to a new housing development in a suburb of San Diego. Charles Ripley and his wife are mostly on an even keel, despite a tragedy that occurred shortly after the move. Then, the Marsh's move in next door and even though they don't know it, the lives of the Ripley's are soon about to change.

First-the good. It is very difficult to put this book down. The chapters are short, (heck, the BOOK is short), and fast paced. Once things start happening, they don't stop happening until the very end.

Second-the baffling. I'm not sure what the point show more of THE HAPPY MAN is supposed to be? I'm pretty sure there's some commentary going on here about housing developments, suburbia, immigration, sex, monogamy, corporate America, family dynamics, the decline of morals in society and so on, but was that the point? I don't know!

Perhaps it's this simple: A man thought he was happy and then was shown that he wasn't? Or that it didn't take all that much to turn a happy, regular guy into something else altogether? Maybe everything is just as much a facade as was Charles Ripley's demeanor? Charles wasn't that good of a guy in the first place and it only took a small nudge to send him down the road of....well, you'll have to read this to find out.

I'm going with a 4/5 star rating because I'm still thinking about this short novel days later and also because it was VERY difficult to put down once started. I'm also going with RECOMMENDED, if only so that you and I could talk about it and I could see what you think, when you're done!

You can get a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Man-Tale-Horror-ebook/dp/B076XL38F8/chashorcor-20

*I received an e-book free from Valancourt Books in exchange for my honest review. This is it!* show less