The Pursuit of Happiness

Finalist for the National Book Award: A deftly comic novel of family and society set in 1960s Chicago

“Being free with the permission of society is not being free at all,” says William Popper, the central character in this quietly ironic first novel. William and his girlfriend, Jane, are sensible University of Chicago graduates, happy lovers, children of good families—and self-described anarchists. When William accidentally runs over an elderly woman and is charged with manslaughter, their lives veer unexpectedly off path. As the consequences of William’s accident compound, the two find themselves butting up against the society they seek to drop out of.

This National Book Award–nominated debut still speaks to those who remain idealistic in a cynical world.