Book description
Happy Neighborhood explores through poetry and prose the cultivation of contented place. How must men in particular sift through the rewards, and belabored grudges, of their own childhoods in order to move productively forward? These thoughtful, carefully crafted meditations seek to define happiness at home. The poems begin with daily…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked Happy Neighborhood as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I’m an English teacher, so in addition to reading lots of literature, I read lots of books about literature. These are frequently brilliant and important – but they’re also, for the most part, deathly dull. Academic prose is engineered for analysis, not artistry; it often strikes deep, but it seldom catches fire.
In the case of Happy Neighborhood, it does both. That’s because, in this 2023 book of essays, stories, and poems about American literature, living in Florida, and adopting a son, Hallock combines the academic with the personal in surprising and moving ways.
I’ll be honest: some chapters…
If you love Happy Neighborhood...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like Happy Neighborhood?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 53 books like Happy Neighborhood.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,298
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Happy Neighborhood, you might also like...
Karl's War
Karl's War is a coming-of-age-meets-thriller set in Germany on the eve of Hitler coming to power. Karl – a reluctant poster boy for the Nazis – meets Jewish Ben and his world is up-turned.
Ben and his family flee to France. Karl joins the German army but deserts and finds…
Girl in the Ashes
Odette Lefebvre is a serial killer stalking the shadows of Nazi-occupied Paris and must confront both the evils of those she murders and the darkness of her own past.
This young woman's childhood trauma shapes her complex journey through World War II France, where she walks a razor's edge…
