{"product_id":"9780300188639","title":"Compulsory Happiness","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn cool, precise prose, and with an unerring sense of the absurd, the four novellas of \u003ci\u003eCompulsory Happiness\u003c\/i\u003e create a picture of everyday life in a grotesque police state, expressing terror and hope, fear and solidarity, the humorous triviality of the ordinary, and the painful search for an ideal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Norman Manea's four novellas, written during the later Ceausescu years, offer a comparable contrast to other Eastern European dissident writing. Instead of the energetic irony, the ebullient absurdism, the sharp-eyed wit, we find a dreamy disconnection, a voice that shock has lowered, an air of sweetness driven mad.\"—Richard Eder, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mr. Manea's voice is radically new, and we are blessedly awakened and alerted by the demand his fiction makes on our understanding.\"—Lore Segal, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068859891952,"sku":"9780300188639","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780300188639_p0.jpg?v=1763670246","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780300188639","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}