Book Review: The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: May 9, 2017
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
“Is there a secret to happiness?” asks comedian Paula Poundstone. “I don’t know how or why anyone would keep it a secret. It seems rather cruel, really . . . Where could it be? Is it deceptively simple? Does it melt at a certain temperature? Can you buy it? Must you suffer for it before or after?” In her wildly and wisely observed book, the comedy legend takes on that most inalienable of rights—the pursuit of happiness.
Offering herself up as a human guinea pig in a series of thoroughly unscientific experiments, Poundstone tries out a different get-happy hypothesis in each chapter of her data-driven search. She gets in shape with taekwondo. She drives fast behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. She communes with nature while camping with her daughter, and commits to getting her house organized (twice!). Swing dancing? Meditation? Volunteering? Does any of it bring her happiness? You may be laughing too hard to care.
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness is both a story of jumping into new experiences with both feet and a surprisingly poignant tale of a single working mother of three children (not to mention dozens of cats, a dog, a bearded dragon lizard, a lop-eared bunny, and one ant left from her ant farm) who is just trying to keep smiling while living a busy life.
The queen of the skepticism-fueled rant, Paula Poundstone stands alone in her talent for bursting bubbles and slaying sacred cows.
Like George Carlin, Steve Martin, and David Sedaris, she is a master of her craft, and her comedic brilliance is served up in abundance in this book. As author and humorist Roy Blount Jr. notes, “Paula Poundstone deserves to be happy. Nobody deserves to be this funny.”
Paula Poundstone wants to know what the secret to happiness is. She endeavors to perform a series of experiments to see which bring her the most happiness. The experiments are unscientific as the title suggests – they are really just her trying new things. She tries things like taekwondo, ballroom dancing and getting organized over the period of seven years. She enlists her three children in a lot of them, usually to their chagrin.
A lot of times a stand-up comedian’s humor doesn’t translate well to the page but Paula is just as funny in this book as she is in her stand-up act. I made the mistake of reading this book in public a few times – it was embarrassing to be laughing out loud but I literally could not help it. There is some seriousness as well as she includes her real life challenges with her kids and with paying her bills now that the heyday of her career seems to have passed. And of course, there is both drama and silliness with her many, many cats. She says that she has around fourteen and it didn’t sound like she was exaggerating.
Fans of Paula’s will enjoy this book for sure but even if you haven’t heard of her, I think you will find this book hilarious. I recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh. Just be careful where you read it!
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
