Happiness Bastard

<p>According to author Kirby Doyle (1932-2003) <em>Happiness Bastard</em> his only published novel was written on a sojourn that my lover post-wife and I took to New York in 1959-1960. Similar to Jack Kerouac's <em>On the Road</em> the novel was composed on a single scroll formed from taped-together sheets of paper. The novel was submitted to and rejected by several publishers before it was finally released in 1968 by Essex House in North Hollywood California.</p><p><br></p><p>Poet Michael McClure described the original manuscript of <em>Happiness Bastard</em> as the most grotesque and hilarious novel I'd ever seen. Charles Bukowski called the novel good stuff. In the only known review of the novel (<em>Los Angeles Free Press</em> Sept. 6 1968) Lawrence Lipton author of The <em>Holy Barbarians</em> the classic 1959 study of the Beats wrote: The most important innovative breakthrough in wordcraft since <em>Howl</em> <em>Naked Lunch</em> <em>The Free-Lance Pallbearers</em> by Ishmael Reed <em>Informed Sources</em> by Willard Bain and Mailer's <em>Why Are We In Vietnam?</em> . . . Read <em>Happiness Bastard</em> by Kirby Doyle. Then if you still don't know where it's at the hell with you.</p>