Review by Vicki
Title: Far from Happy
Author: Jeni Decker
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 200 pages
Blurb:
There was no smoking gun. No horrible family secret behind why I left. No reason at all for me, at nineteen, to leave for New York, ready for anything life had to offer—especially if it involved certain proclivities. In the time required to walk to Times Square from the Port Authority Terminal, my naiveté was wiped away. I witnessed a prostitute performing her nightly hustle. In the days to follow, I was mugged twice, ripped off while trying to purchase pot, and beaten to the point of soiling myself. But a chance encounter with a young hustler led to a meeting with Mr. B, mob-connected owner of multiple clubs on Times Square, all under fire from a new mayor embarking on an anti-sleaze campaign directed squarely at The Deuce.
I spent the next twenty years of my life coming of age on the streets, but now, as I speed south across the countryside, heading for my native New Orleans and a dying sister, I make a pact to leave New York in New York, only to find coming home proves harder than coming out
Review:
Wow! I went in to this book blindly, knowing nothing about the author, and only briefly reading the description. What a lovely dark book it is!
Jackson, the main character in the story is a wonderful, I can’t decide if he’s truly damaged, or just reckless, or a lost soul…This story jumps back and forth between Jackson’s arrival in New York City as an innocent from New Orleans, following his life on the streets, and nearly 20 years later, as he returns to New Orleans to deal with a family crisis. The earlier bits set in NYC are fascinating, the underbelly of New York, bathhouses, theaters, violence, kink, prostitution, drug abuse. Yet through it all Jackson survives and appears to thrive.
The city of New York is a character all on its own in this story. Dark, gritty, depressing and disgusting. The old NYC, before it was Disneyfied. The authors description is amazing. I could nearly smell the nasty scent of Times Square on a hot summer night. The description of conversations overheard in a restaurant, the odd characters in the bathhouses, oh, the trip Jackson takes on a train to Queens. The people he meets, both good and bad, are just fantastic.
The characters in New Orleans are a huge part of this story as well. Jackson’s patient loving family, and Chris his potential love interest. Chris is there, but this is not his story. This is very clearly Jackson’s book.
The transition Jackson goes through is amazing to watch. He is truly one of the most interesting and creative characters I have read about in a long time. There are hints of thing he’s done or seen that we don’t really see, I almost wish we did! I wanted more Jackson!
I just finished this story and realized there’s not a lot of sex. And that’s just fine, actually. It’s not really a romance, it’s Jackson’s life story. There’s a bit of good sex, a bit of bad sex, although that is more implied. There is some angst, but Jackson deals with things so oddly that even the angst didn’t really get to me. It’s just a really good, gritty, dark story, with a perfect ending.
I’m so glad I read this book. Five stars, more if I could give them! It won’t be to everyone’s taste, it’s not a romance, there’s not a lot of hot steamy sex, although there an implied HEA. Or maybe HFN, it’s hard to say. If you like a strong character driven story, you’ll like it. If you want flowers and chocolates, you probably won’t
Rating: 
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