Though some are happy, many are not.  Even among those who would describe themselves as happy, there are many who only imagine they are, or remember that they once were, or expect they someday will be.   Many of those who are unhappy are so because they are engaged in a pursuit of unhappiness.  This book explores the reasons people seek unhappiness.  It considers the pursuit of unhappiness through a series of studies of fictional accounts and actual experiences including: the design of the Holocaust Museum, the motivation of the high altitude mountain climber, the Night of the Living Dead trilogy, and the myth of Sisyphus.  The book explores the nature and ends of human desire, the role of hope in unhappiness, and the importance of imagination and fantasy in human life.  Its central thesis is that the pursuit of unhappiness is a flight from emotional aliveness into a self-imposed state of life without the feeling of being alive.