Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy Endings by Paul Robert Smith

The optimistic title of this book is not only deceptive as a title, but also masks the true depth of Smith’s literary genius. The title is symbolic of the writing style used throughout the book, which is simplistic at first glance but in reality holds together a massive structure of countless different conclusions.

The book starts off with the death of the main character Fielding Montanna, whose narrative voice nevertheless continues to describe forthcoming bizarre events, such as the appearance of an old lady with a pram full of spooky dolls who gets swallowed by a “sea monster”, an old man jumping off a tree or the local friendly insomniac – ‘Moriarty’ – “calmly splitting the [Sandman’s] head open like a ripe melon”, which, by comparison, make Montanna’s death sound as casual and inconsequential as stepping off the kerb onto the road!

The story has an ordinary setting which is consistently punctured by a collage of unexplainable happenings and strange characters, to say the least. Smith also gives the word ‘irony’ a new dimension, and there's a narrative voice so informal that you’ll know Montanna better than himself by the end! In a dream-like world where literally anything can happen, you will be miserably lost if you try to find the big picture in this one. It can be slightly too quirky to be an enjoyable read, but lovers of chaos and disorder will find this is for them. [Isha Gupta]