Purchase
The Happiest Man in the World
Alec Wilkinson
An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino
Random House
March 2007
On Sale: March 13, 2007
Featuring: David Pearlman
320 pages ISBN: 1400065437 EAN: 9781400065431 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Biography
The Happiest Man in the World buoyantly describes seventy-
four-year-old David Pearlman, a restless and migratory
soul, a mariner, a musician, a member of the Explorers
Club and a friend of the San Francisco Beats, a former
preacher and sign painter, a polymath, a pauper, and a
football strategist for the Red Mesa Redskins of the
Navajo Nation. When Pearlman was fifty, he was bitten on
the hand by a dog in Mexico and for two years got so sick
that he thought he would die. When he recovered, he felt
so different that he decided he needed a new name. He
began calling himself Poppa Neutrino, after the itinerant
particle that is so small it can hardly be detected. To
Neutrino, the particle represents the elements of the
hidden life that assert themselves discreetly. Inspired by Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki, Neutrino is the
only man ever to build a raft from garbage he found on the
streets of New York and sail it across the North Atlantic. The New York Daily News described the accomplishment
as “the sail of the century.” National Geographic
broadcast an account of the trip as part of its series on
extreme adventures. And now he is on a quest to cross the
Pacific on a raft. If he makes it, he plans to continue
around the world. No one has ever sailed around the world
on a raft. Meanwhile, he has invented the Neutrino Clock
Offense, an unstoppable football play, which a former
coach of the New York Jets describes as being as
innovative as the forward pass. The philosophical underpinnings of Neutrino’s existence
are what he calls Triads, a concept worked out after years
of reading and reflection. He believes that each person,
to be truly happy, must define his or her three deepest
desires and pursue them remorselessly. Freedom, Joy, and
Art are Neutrino’s three. The Happiest Man in the World is a lavish, exotic, funny,
and deeply serious book about a man who has led a life of
profound engagement and ceaseless adventure.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|