Author Genre Literary fiction | Language English Publication date Feb. 11, 2010 | |
Publisher Cool Genius Publications Media type Print (paperback), E-book | ||
Happy Face is the debut novel by African-American writer Christopher Reel. The novel was published in 2010, released simultaneously in digital and hardcopy formats. The novel is about a loner dealing with the suicide of his mother, love, trying to figure out his existence, and other situation in the human condition.
Contents
Plot summary
The novel is narrated in the first person by the protagonist Archibald Johnson. Recently released from doing a five-year sentence in prison he falls into a sort of existential crisis, quit his job and then tried to commit suicide. His attempt at committing suicide, like his mother, was stopped by an epileptic seizure personified by The Guy. Archibald sitting across the street from a bank ponders about his life; jobless, haunted by the appearance of his dead mother with himself as a little boy, falling in love with a prostitute and barraged by the psychological rambling of the Clerk. He decides after watching an old man come out of the bank that he would rob it. Thus tossing him into a comical spree of heist and self-discovery.
Main characters
Archibald Johnson The protagonist
Magdelene Prostitute and Archibald's love interest
The Clerk Archibald's conscience
My Mother Archibald's mother
Little Archie Archibald as little a child
Skip An old friend of Archibald who ends up helping to rob banks
The Guy personification of Archibald's seizures