The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino

The Happiest Man in the World is another Alec Wilkinson profile of an offbeat eccentric — this time of Poppa Neutrino, a homeless man whose nomadic life has included performing as a street musician in New Orleans, traveling across the Atlantic in a homemade raft, and developing what he believes to be a revolutionary football play. The book is enormously entertaining, and is the kind of story that makes you appreciate life itself (and consider that perhaps you are living your own too seriously). Here is Wilkinson's original New Yorker story that became the basis for the book.