The Second Half of Happiness

The second half of this book is when the story really starts to take off. The world is ending, not from the bomb, but from peace, love and not giving a crap anymore. It is during the second half is where I actually start to like our little hero Edwin. He may still be the whiny little idiot that treats people like something stuck on the bottom of his shoe and always says the wrong thing (especially to May) I think he is honestly trying to redeem himself throughout the second half. Of course he has a bit more motivation to change now that he lost his wife, lost May the only woman that he probably could stand to be around has multinational tycoons hiring thugs to kill him because of his connection to the one book that is destroying there companies (if you're happy all the time, would you bother to buy anything?) When reading the first half of the book, I would have been the last person to expect Edwin to behave so dramatically and aspire to such heights as to actually save the world (or at least make it a more interesting place again.) The best part easily is when he is having his battle of wits with the actual creator of the powerful What I Learned on the Mountain Jack McGreary, trying to out-explain each other over if humans are worth more, maybe even deserve more than the quiet, happy lethargic death that looms over the world in the story. The novel becomes more action-packed, not in the sense of guns or explosions (even though it was pretty damn funny when Edwin shot Tupak's finger off) but in more that Will Ferguson is breaking the obvious tone of monotony in the first half and actually having Edwin go on a small series of exciting adventures. It makes the story even more enjoyable.