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

by Alec Wilkinson

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a story about a man who builds busted weird rafts and sails them across oceans without dying in the process, but it's also about this football formation that he invents. I like the raft part, and the stories about his family vagabonding all over the country and into Mexico, singing for their supper and painting signs for cash..the football part I could do without. The man himself is fascinating in a car wreck kind of way, but the writer somehow manages to put too much of himself into the story, I can't ever forget he's there, judging and evaluating the things that Poppa does. Still, I'd reccomend it.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was disappointed in reading The Happiest Man in the World to learn that it was not about me.

I have felt certain, for some years now, that I have been followed off and on by a writer from the New Yorker who has been clandestinely observing and recording my life so that he could later filter it into gripping, affecting prose that would convincingly illuminate my unassuming, humble happiness.

Instead, Alec Wilkinson had been tailing one David Pearlman, or Poppa Neutrino.

And for the better. This compact telling of Neutrino’s many odd and divergent adventures makes for a remarkable biography; a biography distinctly detached from the traditional regurgitations of war heroes and world leaders and celebrities that often serve little more than to reinforce sentimental nostalgia and hackneyed myth.

Similar to the way Schulz and Peanuts mustered a decent tale out of a boring man’s life, The Happiest Man in the World is an entirely fascinating read about a bum. Yes, a bum. Nothing against bums, forgive my predetermined assumption about the interest-quotient and book-worthiness of bums, but I’m not the one writing and publishing the glut of biographies on war heroes, world leaders, and celebrities.

And Poppa Neutrino really isn’t a bum. Well, he is, but in reading The Happiest Man in the World, you’ll learn many other great phrases for these get-a-job-get-married-get-a-house-challenged individuals, like “modern day aborigine.” But for all intents and purposes, Neutrino is what most of us would consider a bum. He is often homeless, he panhandles and performs on the street for money, he hitchhikes, and salvages discarded materials. After reading this book, you will think twice before sticking your nose up at that bum on the corner asking you for loose change. He or she may very well be famously profiled in a book by a writer from the New Yorker detailing their diverse life of serving in the Korean War, becoming an ordained Baptist pastor, inventing football plays, working as a painter, musician, and in the circus, and sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a home-made raft.

Wilkinson’s brief encapsulation of Poppa Neutrino’s life is captivating. The chapters are short, the subject is enchanting, and the storytelling is detailed without being exhaustive and burdened by analysis and judgment. That’s not to say it is completely objective (God, wouldn’t that be boring!). Wilkinson does allow himself some sparse commentary, but mostly confines it to Chapter 1 of Part Two with observations like, “If he had in him a shred of materialism, I am persuaded that his cleverness, his resourcefulness, and his vitality would have made fortunes, and his story would be conventional.”

Reading Wilkinson’s account of Neutrino, I got the feeling that he was committed to Neutrino the man and not just Neutrino the character of his next book that, please for the love of god I hope sells so I better try to make this really fucking interesting and spice it up with every last speck of dirt I have dug up on the guy. Wilkinson must have done some extensive interviewing and research, sure, but it is his subject, the interminable Poppa Neutrino, that shines through.

So thank god for Alec Wilkinson having the good sense to get out of the goddamned way of such a singular person and doing us all a service by sharing Neutrino’s life in clean, simple sentences that are precise and refreshingly void of any elegiac schmaltziness.

The Happiest Man in the World is damn fine storytelling.

And I look forward to “The Happiest Woman in the World.”

[Catarina Dinis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book from a random book shop in London. It came in a closed package with other 9, for 1£. All the other 9 ended up being donated but this title got my attention. The happiest man in the world is a fast paced biography of Poppa Neutrino, a multi-talented man who lives a nomadic life between the US and Mexico sustaining himself by singing on the streets, painting signs and 10 other different activities. Neutrino has this untameable urge to cross the oceans on rafts he builds himself with other people’s garbage. Besides the amusing unbelievable events in which the main character finds himself, the book provides space for reflection upon life and our short time in this world. As someone who stresses significantly over making the most of my time and making the right choices, The happiest man in the world has reminded me that when I am 80 and look back, I won’t be telling the stories of the days I’ve spent on my desk, but rather the adventures I’ve lived and the people I’ve met.

[DilanAc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually it was quite boring. Neutrino is certainly not the happiest man in the world, He is driven like a crazy person from one thing to the next and must succeed, succeed, succeed. I don't know why Wilkinson didn't take this story (which could be quite interesting) and fictionalize it. If from a fictional point of view we could understand Neutrino a bit more it might be fascinating but this simply recounting what Neutrino says and his random whims makes him incomprehensible and not very sympathetic. I am not sure how this book ever came my way. I think I was fascinated by the title. But not one I will read again.

[Heep · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book, presumably like its subject, meanders almost aimlessly about. If happiness means doing what you want, when you want - then I suppose this guy was happy. I have met people like this. They congregate around fringe activities or interests, like bodybuilding in the 1970s or board gaming before it became big business. Even the first computer geeks had their share of myopic dreamers. Neutrino may be rare because he continued on his non-path seemingly to death. At some point it ceased to be interesting and asked what would Poppa Neutrino do? I chose happiness and quit reading.

[Jerry Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buckminster Fuller, Jack Reacher and Charlie Chaplin describes Poppa Neutrino. He is a Renaissance man, a wanderer and a hobo. It is hard to fathom the life that Poppa had reinventing himself and others crisscrossing the world and being ok living FREE. Sailing a raft down a river and across seas and oceans seems insane but definitely a WOW life not an okay life.

[Miles O'Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging book, though I had to occasionally put it down and take a break. Poppa Neutrino was definitely an interesting character. His life was so far out of the ordinary that twice I forgot I wasn't reading fiction.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of a man wanting to cross both oceans on a handmade raft.

[Agnia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long and tricky read - took me half a year! Fascinating nonetheless.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this account - a wide-ranging walk through the character of Poppa Neutrino. My favorite line was how no matter how wild and crazy the story from Neutrino, the corroborating tales the author heard from participants were much wilder - hence his willingness to take Neutrino's tales at face value.

One interesting cornerstone of Poppa's homespun philosophy was his focus on triads - decision sets with three variables. Those of you with a deeper investment in the classics of western philosophy will undoubtedly recognize this construct from more renowned minds, but it was a new tool to me. His guiding principle was this initial triad - participate, redirect or leave. These are the decisions that anyone can use to shape their future.

The second expression of this idea was all about identifying your three deepest desires. "If you can define your three deepest desires, and you can live in accordance with them, you will be happy." I will be exploring this further on my blog - tune in via samuelhughfox.info!

[Andrea Balfour · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an unexpected find, just something I picked up at the library and thought I'd give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. Poppa Neutrino is a self named man in his seventies whose claims to fame include being free of conventional lifestyles, taking the 1st voyage across the Atlantic in a raft made of all found materials, leading a travelling troop of sign painters, creating a groundbreaking new football play, heading a band under his namesake, and attempting a raft voyage across the Pacific. At this time in my life, I want to do what I want to do and not be beholden to anyone or anything or anyone's pre-conceived notions of who I am or who I'm supposed to be. Poppa lives his life this way. He cares about other people but not about what they think about him. He lives his life according to what makes him happy and is adaptable enough to change and know when he isn't happy anymore. He's a free spirit who isn't discouraged by naysayers and blazes his own path. This is a true story. He died in 2011. It was fun to read about some of his life's adventures. They made me smile.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sped through this book like as if I was riding a serious gale. Poppa Neutrino is even more fascinating than I imagined, and sweet and vulnerable too. A story of a genius oddball and his adventured, I just swallowed this book like the whale did to Jonah. My only criticism is that at times the author Wilkinson does insert his POV a little heavy-handedly interupting the thrust of the story. Perhpas some of his insights should have been left for a chapter at the end or perhaps an afterword. Love you Poppa, you sail on!

[Noah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of Neutrino's life is full of adventure and eccentricity, but throughout the book, it feels like Wilkinson is grasping for a larger theme and failing to find one. At the end of this book, I don't feel like I learned anything new about Neutrino as a person, or what his experience means for anything else. I don't necessarily blame Wilkinson for that, because his subject is particularly inscrutable, but it left me underwhelmed.

[Leah Brine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and felt sad when I finished reading it as I wanted to hear more Poppa's adventures.
The story of his life is captivating and the adventures he has and his way of life is spontaneous and fascinating.
However I did become less enthusiastic with the long chapters about the football play he was teaching all the football teams. It's just something I don't find very interesting but after I dragged my feet through those long long chapters the book picked up again :)

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason I made it through this entire book is because I took it on a plane with no other form of entertainment. It's an interesting tale of an interesting character. Most of the time I felt pity for him for wasting his life. I'm sure he'd feel the same about me, though. It has some great quotes though.

[Wally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite easily one of the best books I have ever read! Highly, highly recommended.
Beautifully written, framed with perspective, yet unbiased. Always captivating and always revealing something valuable.
Though at times remarkable to the point of being unbelievable, this biography is filled with truths and is food for the soul.

[Lyndon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sympathetic biography of an American original. Had never heard of Poppa Neutrino before reading this book, notwithstanding the fact that he is the first person to have traversed the Atlantic by raft.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too schizophrenic for me: "He did this, then he did this, oh then he went and did this again." I need more overarching ideas or narrative, though perhaps the structure of this book simply fits the man.

[Lucius · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there were certainly some slow points to this book, overall it's a fun read. Poppa Neutrino in a mixed protagonist. In some ways, I really respect him. In other ways, I just shake my head and marvel at his stubbornness.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at a book sale and opened it right away to begin reading. I thought it was a work of fiction at first because some of this stories are just that ridiculous. But it's real. Funny story about the crazy life of Poppa Neutrino.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is about the guy who made a raft from scrap wood and junk and sailed it across the atlantic. his whole life was nuts it turns out. in a good way. i like this book

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book about a guy that builds a raft out of trash and sails it across the atlantic ocean is, in my opinion, worth reading.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar to Joseph Mitchell's 'Joe Gould's Secret'.....Anyone who enjoys sailing, football or characters should love it.

[Thommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting man, vagabond, musician, gypsy who sails the ocean on rafts made of junk.

[Jess B Baclesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting man who did interesting things. But there is a subtext that he probably did a lot of hurtful things yet that is never mentioned. A one side story.

[Charles Thiesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and deep. Displays the character of a complex human being. Alec Wilkinson is a terrific writer. Papa Neutrino is an amazing human being.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a death march finishing this book ... well-written I suppose but I found Poppa Neutrino maddening and the pace was sooooo slow.

[Antony James · Rating 4 out of 5]

v enjoyable account of the strange, inspirational, itinerant life of Poppa Neutrino - philosopher, raft-builder, American Football strategist, ocean voyager.

[Ariel Plath · Rating 2 out of 5]

What could have been a fascinating read was plagued by a style of erratic and unclear presentation. Loved the idea of the book but was not a fan of the execution.

[erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheers to Poppa Neutrino -- a certain kind of hero!