the ending... crying at my work computer... more thoughts to come, perhaps in essay form... watch this space :)11 s Aida58 6

Wow, what an achievement. And to think it's a debut! Just wow.

Celina Baljeet Basra tells the story of Happy Singh Soni, a young, hopeful man from a village of Punjab with a penchant for Godard, dreaming of making it in Europe. While entirely fictional and playing with elements from magical realism, comedy, drama, and social critique, the story of Happy mirrors the lives of many migrant workers and sans papiers in Europe and the wider Global North. Despite, or maybe even because of its novel, almost experimental form, "Happy" is incredibly accessible without sacrificing depth and art. Truly, a must-read.

Transparency: I was gifted a copy by Celina Baljeet Basra, without any request for a review. But I couldn't keep my excitement to myself!8 s Kristen Bookrvws137 421

emotional damage

6 s Divya63 1 follower

this was a bit too literary for me. it seemed almost a collection of postmodern poetry, but it felt so fragmented that it didn't feel a cohesive novel and felt a bit superficial. i couldn't get too deep into happy's mind or life and none of the other characters were fully realized. i really loved how much thought and research went into the references in the story. i actually heard the author in conversation with another author at a bookstore so i can appreciate the process behind the novel, but ultimately it was not cohesive enough to keep my attention and some parts were so abstract i felt they didn't serve any real purpose.4 s Shannon Wu21

This book is one of those things where you’re unclear as to what’s going on but once it’s all revealed it makes sense. Social commentary about the unlivable conditions of migrant workers, peppered with the innocence and endearing naïveté of our young protagonist. We WILL root for him ?3 s Emma8

Loved the formatting! Just so unclear at times and a little bit too much all over the place 3 s Petri191 9

I received an early reader copy for this book from NetGalley for free.

Happy Singh Soni is born in a rural village in Punjabi, India. He has a big imagination and dreams of movie stardom inspired by Jean-Luc Godard films. By chasing his dreams he ends up immigrating to Italy and working in restaurants and farms.

Told trough small vignettes that range from imagination sequences to parts told from the POV inanimate objects this book had lot of ideas and heart behind it. Due to the how the story is constructed it's a nice quick read, but at times can feel disorienting.

There's some interesting topics going on about migration workers rights, sexuality, cinema etc. but I felt the book tried too much at times and due to that felt little superficial at times. Also the tone change at the epilogue was something I was not expecting.

Overall interesting piece of fiction that I'm happy I got to experience, even though it left me wanting more at times.
netgalley3 s Sarah VanLandingham51 1 follower

I did not love this formatting of the plot in this book, and I HATED the font the publishing group chose for the hard cover, which is why this is 2 stars. While the message of the story is important, the plot was poorly executed in the vignette style the author decided to go with.

This book follows Happy, a cinephile farm worker in Indian who dreams of becoming a movie star and escaping his small village. He is presented with an opportunity to “pursue his dreams” and leave India, but everything is not what it seems when the organization arranging his travel is actually a crime syndicate and Happy ends up in a worst position than he began in, albeit thousands of miles away from his family, and toiling in the very reality so many immigrant farm workers suffer today.

The book plays with elements of magical realism (not my thing), comedy, drama, and social critique, and mirrors the lives of many migrant workers across the globe, suffering in terrible conditions but dreaming of a better life. Happy’s positive outlook on life propelled him to search for a better life for himself, but powers outside his control took advantage of his naïveté, which ultimately led to his downfall.

As previously mentioned, I hated how this was formatted. There is no chapter format and there’s too many characters to keep track of and detract from Happy’s journey. The author writes in titled short segments that could be anything from “words I learned in Italian today” to a voicemail from Happy’s mother. I don’t think it was executed to the best it could have been. Also, I could read literally not one more word in this horrific sans serif font from hell. The whole book felt you were reading a comedy essay written by a fifth grader, just based on the font.

While the idea is worthwhile, I don’t think this debut novel executed it to the fullest, best extent.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review2 s Jana822 101

Happy broke my heart
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