The Dead Father [Paperback]

Donald Barthelme (Author), Donald Antrim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2004

The Dead Father is a gargantuan half-dead, half-alive, part mechanical, wise, vain, powerful being who still has hopes for himself--even while he is being dragged by means of a cable toward a mysterious goal. In this extraordinary novel, marked by the imaginative use of language that influenced a generation of fiction writers, Donald Barthelme offered a glimpse into his fictional universe. As Donald Antrim writes in his introduction, "Reading The Dead Father, one has the sense that its author enjoys an almost complete artistic freedom . . . a permission to reshape, misrepresent, or even ignore the world as we find it . . . Laughing along with its author, we escape anxiety and feel alive."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dennis Holland delivers a well-paced, entertaining performance of Barthelme's classic. As the titular character—the Dead Father, a huge, half-dead, semimechanical godlike ruler—is dragged by a group of his children across his lands toward his burial spot, bizarre and increasingly absurd exploits and conversations unfold. Holland, a seasoned reader of Barthelme's work, does ample justice to the tone and spirit of the text. His comedic timing is superb, as is his voice for the Dead Father. While the narration will delight Dead Father devotees, listeners less familiar with the author's work may be confused by the novel's experimental style and unconventional plot structure, which transitions unsteadily to audio book. A Farrar, Straus & Giroux paperback. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Donald Barthelme was one of the most influential American novelists of the 1970s and 1980s, bringing a unique postmodern voice to his novels, short stories, and essays. He died in 1989.

Donald Antrim is the author of three novels, including The Verificationist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (August 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374529256
• ISBN-13: 978-0374529253
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Caustic Brilliance, April 9, 2000

By 

A bookish fellow (Juneau, AK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Father (Paperback)

I hate experimental fiction. Don DeLillo and his ilk, they bore me; it's just a lot of fake cleverness. But this book, while you can't deny the avantness of its garde, is...well...the first page brings up the question of just what exactly is lodged in the supine, mile-tall Dead Father's teeth. "Mackerel salad. At least we think it is mackerel salad. In the sagas, it is mackerel salad." Wildly fantastic, caustically funny ( the sex scenes will make you fall out of your chair), prosodically innovative ( I believe Barthelme has invented his own verb tense) and yet, easy to follow and, really, with an old-fashioned plot. It is a parable about the overthrow of old tyrannies -- and in spite of all the literary smartaleckitude it is tender and genuinely moving. You have never read anybody like Barthelme, and if you can find this book anywhere (out of PRINT! how DARE they? ) treasure it. Nothing like it has ever been written or will be again. Sixty-eight stars (if they would allow it.)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read, March 19, 2000

By 

A Ward (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Father (Paperback)

Barthelme's best novel. As with all of his novel's there is not so much a plot as wonderful word play, black, absurdist humor, and a terrific sense of irony. This is the outrageous story of a small group of people toting their dead ruler--The Dead Father--to his burial ground. Both a pathetic and frightening character, The Dead Father only vaguely suspects what is happening to him, continuing to believe that he is being taken somewhere to be restored to life. This is the kind of novel you could get away with writing in the mid-20th century, a time of great experimentataion in literature. Unfortunately, those days appear to be over.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars His best novel, February 24, 2001

By 

Mr. Egregious - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Father (Paperback)

In relation to SNOW WHITE, this work contains more substance and is a greater literary effort than its predecessor. At the open we have 22 people, some Biblical while some are clearly not even representative, literally dragging God, not quite dead, through various roads, countryside, and towns in order to reach the plot in which He will be buried. Of course, it does not matter is He is dead when they reach their destination. The novel is one of Barthelme's more powerful tales and, as always, full of humor. One cannot read this without thinking that the Monty Python crew was somewhat influenced by this work, philosophically as well as from a creative standpoint. The one surprising footnote to this work is that it is a rather easy read, a linear narrative with definitive characters. Yet, as will all of Barthelme, is if never boring for even a page.