The Case Against Happiness
Jean-Paul Pecqueur
In this wide-ranging debut, likeable characters in postmodern America argue a case against happiness. Whether watching teens practice cheerleading in a surveillance video or discussing death with a shoe salesclerk, these poems ultimately find a certain joy, and redemptive love. Wit and wry observation mark these disjointed narratives from an agile new voice.
"...a promising poet with a generosity of spirit and the knowledge that 'joy is not impossible.'"
—Publishers Weekly
"Sardonic and humorous, cynical and complex, these metaphysical musings celebrate the nameless dread, the logic of the illogical. They address big ideas: life, death, heaven, shoe shopping. They twist and loop, follow to unexpected conclusions...."
—Library Journal
"The voice in these poems is real and familiar but has rarely been captured in poetry. Read carefully and follow."
—American Poet
"Pecqueur's brand of nonchalant sarcasm is a delight."
—The Great American Pin-Up
"Jean-Paul Pecqueur is a poet who has, in truth, in actual landscapes and stunningly immediate circumstances, wrestled with an angel. And the fact that his very particular, very contemporary angel wears the shape of a bird's last breath and the elusive substance of human justice, troubles and delights me. These are poems of harrowing moment."
—Donald Revell
about the author
Jean-Paul Pecqueur is a graduate of the University of Washington’s creative writing program, where he won the Academy of American Poets Harold Taylor Prize. His poems and critical reviews have appeared in such journals as American Letters & Commentary and Rain Taxi. He teaches Literary and Critical Studies at the Pratt Institute, and English at York College, City University of New York.
Author photo by Jeffery M. Gates
two poems from the case against happiness
electronic press kit (pdf file)
interview with jean-paul pecqueur
