Happy Face

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.

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

References

• Book Review - Happy Face A Surprising and Interesting New Writer, March 29, 2013