"happy" is a travelogue of sorts. it's split into approximately 100 pieces ranging from a single page to 10 or more pages. the book was designed by rick vermeulen so it's as interesting graphically as it is content-wise. it's organized into 12 subsections dealing with issues such as "consumerism", "a car for everyone", "monuments" or "socialist-realist palaces for the common man". a lot of the book is quite focused on (failures of) soviet building initiatives as implemented in places like kaunas, tblisi, warsaw, budapest, etc. and the cultural impact left today by these experiments in creating happiness. when not dealing with the soviets, another favorite target is planned communities in western europe -- places like walden 7 in barcelona, hoogvliet in rotterdam or christiana in copenhagen. these sites are examined ideologically and then practically and it becomes obvious that regardless of the politics, the reality of these places never quite seems to line up with the goals. the writers drop enough historical, cultural and consumer context for you to begin imagining why attempting to build happiness into our cities is an exercise doomed to end in frustration.

"happy" isn't an outstanding book, but it's far from a bad one either. the breadth of its approach made a lot of connections for me in subject matter i wasn't previously that familiar with and sent me off in a few new directions to explore further on my own. that is usually all i can ever expect of a good book.

Happy: Cities and Public Happiness in Post-War Europe is a concise and immensely entertaining assembly of photos and essays. The format, with the varied font sizes, colors and allignment, makes for an insightful and visually compelling study of well-intended (but ultimately superficially) complementary narratives of common politik throughout post-war Europe's public spaces. Very entertaining read.

My star rating is irrelevant because I didn't read past the part where the author has Yuri Gagarin flying around in Sputnik. You are a brightly colored book, oh book, but that is all to me.