Happy Numbers of Julius Miles, The

by Jim Keeble, Richard Pearce (Reader)

Julius Miles is a mathematical genius, but he is hefty of frame, awkward with the opposite sex and struggling to bring his existence into balance. When he stumbles across the girl next door naked and dead on her Victorian tiles, he starts to unravel the one equation that's eluded him: that of his own life. And so it is that with the most unlikely of assistants—a transsexual Cupid with a penchant for drugs—he embarks on a quest to find the truth about love, death, family, and how, ultimately, you make your numbers happy.

Genres: Fiction

MP3 CD

First published May 1, 2012

Reviews

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started with a quirky and sweet examination of an odd chap, a statistician with some social awkwardness, and at the beginning I thought I was going to be reading a gently humourous - but hardly extraordinary or original - little feel-good novel of an ilk I've enjoyed before. Mike Gayle, Nick Hornby, 'The Rosie Project', that kind of thing.

It dipped down to a slightly disappointing three in the second half, however, when I felt it lost its way a bit as a story. I liked the set-up, but the novel took a bit of a drift and ended up involving too much of a 'cupid' type narrator, various mystery/crime aspects introduced, and I just felt it didn't really mesh properly or make the most of early promise. For 20p from a library sale, however, I couldn't feel too upset.

[David Grieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thriller with slightly mystical overtones that really did not do it for me. The narrator's style grated and got less and less believable as the story went on. Other than that, the main character had a charm that worked well and the story developed apace but the whole lacked something.

[Fab Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julius Miles is never happier than when working with, or thinking about, numbers. Felicity, a transsexual and life-long match-maker, feels that he needs a loving relationship and starts following him around to see who could be suitable. Then events take an unexpected and shocking turn when one of the potential matches, Daisy Perkins, is found murdered.
I loved this intriguing and unusual story; it’s poignant with flashes of dark humour, lots of twists and fascinating characters.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky characters, refreshing take on love, and a surprise ending! Entertaining read!

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

PEARL RULED (p59)

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: Try this on for size:

Even murder cops get bored. They're as keen as the rest of us to go home and watch television. It's not the gunslingers who solve crime but the pedants and the bores, my old man explained. "The evidence is is always there, son. Most cases are solved by a pig-headed copper going back one last time.

There is one more thing he told me, my cop father. Because it acts as an alibi, and because they get a kick out of seeing the pain and grief they've caused, killers often attend the funerals of their victims.

This is A Confederacy of Dunces plus equations, divided by Ignatius J. Reilly's nasty attitude towards others, times neurodivergent Othering plus fatphobia. There are a lot of characters. They speak, or think, in short bursts. There's a transgender woman playing matchmaker...and called a transsexual. Well, to be fair, this came out in 2012 and that was okay then.

But it just is not doing it for me at all. I am releasing the tree book into the Little Free Library as of now.

[Tricia Villanueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another proof that I can barely resist a yellow book. To be honest, I loved the cover more than the story itself bec I feel like the premise was a bit too stretched and the ending was all over the place. (Or maybe I just didn't like the narrator?) That being said, I still enjoyed reading this bec it has its tender moments and it gave me the gift of happy numbers.

"Do you know what a happy number is, Arnold? It's a number where the iterated sums of the squares of the digits terminate at one. The sequence stops. The number reaches happiness. I think you're my happy number, Arnold."

[Tilly Carsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book I found initially intriguing and inventive. It lost it’s way a little for me even though It was darkly humoured and had some diverse characters.

[Kaelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the narrator was a really interesting choice. The ending was a little confusing and frantic, but overall I enjoyed it.

[Cyndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another read-aloud

This book was very slow to get going, but was interesting in the end...

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have been a full five stars, but found the ending a little disappointing. Nevertheless, a great read!

[Julie]

I made it to page 65. It just never really got my attention.

[Felicity Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of professional statistician Julius Miles, an autistic savant/obsessive compulsive(?), with a profound capacity for figures who feels the need to boil his Jersey Royals for exactly 13 minutes and steam his French green beans for four, who, in an attempt to shy away from relationships, hides himself away in numbers.

Narrated by Felicity, nee Kevin (just one of a myriad of wonderfully quirky individuals), a somewhat drug-addled transsexual, cupid/fairy godmother type character, The Happy Numbers though essentially a story of relationships, of one man's search to find his happy numbers, combines a (sort of) detective story with a somewhat unusual romance set amidst the bustling multi-cultural melting pot that is London.

Though ultimately an enjoyable read, thankfully Julius Miles did have more to offer than the one dimensional stereotype of the mathematical genius, I did however on occasion feel that the 'linguistic inventiveness' and the author's tendency to go off at a tangent came close to interrupting the flow of what was otherwise very good story telling.

Copyright: Petty Witter @ Pen and Paper.
Disclaimer: Read and reviewed on behalf of the publisher, Alma Books, I was merely asked for my honest opinion, no financial compensation was asked for nor given.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. What an amazing find! I picked it up for the title, which intrigued me, and it did not let me down. A truly original story peopled with well rounded, believable characters with very human dilemmas. The multi-cultural east end of London comes alive in this book, the scents, the noises, the colorful people. Loved Felicity, adored Julius, liked Awa, even warmed to Daisy in the end. A great book, beautifully written, with compassion and love.

Page 23: 'There's no end of labels in the modern world designed to make us anonymous.'
Page 52: 'I have found that absence is often the predominant force in our lives.'
Page 90: 'Pain sometimes the closest we come to true prayer in our lives.'
Page 247: 'To my mind, memories are merely the stories we prefer to other stories...'
Page 272: 'Real love is the one that breaks us.'

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Roman gods may be history but Cupid's not dead in fact he's had a sex change, is living in London and goes by the name Felicity; she drinks too much and pops too many pills but it's still business as usual for this Cupid. Her current target is one Julius Miles, a tall, socially-awkward statistician and everything is going by the numbers under the woman who is top of her list dies and Felicity finds she can't move onto Plan B as easily as she might have hoped and turns detective.

Read my full review on my blog here.

[Kevin Orrman-Rossiter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poignant is one word to describe this book. It's a tale of personal relationships featuring some interesting and not entirely convincing characters in London. The main character, Julius Miles of the happy numbers, for me never really escapes the stereotype of mathematical genius. The author does not do anything really interesting with him or this idea. It neither offended nor enticed me. A good read - but missed opportunity.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story of Julius and his unusual life.
It takes place at an important time of great change for him. And he is knowingly and unknowingly entwined with some interesting characters, not least of whom is the narrator.
I don't think there is too much more to say without giving away the story, but definitely worth a read!

[Guadalupe Cordero]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is full of trivia: UK NHS is the biggest employer in Europe; how dna is affected to create sex changes, i.e. homosexuals or transsexuals; how painful it is to change sex. Great references to East London: the old Roman Road, Putney, etc.

The end was disappointing, a bit confusing, but I supposed that is the way the narrator was!

[Dave Vito · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one up in the hope that it would thrill me the way that The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao did. It didn't, but again, give me something inventive and quirky with some originality (like this one) and I'm happy.