The Dead Fathers Club [Hardcover]

Matt Haig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007

A ghost story with a twist—a suspenseful and poignantly funny update of the Hamlet story

Eleven-year-old Philip Noble has a big problem: His dad, who was killed in a car accident, appears as a bloodstained ghost at his own funeral and introduces Philip to the Dead Fathers Club. The club, whose members were all murdered, gathers outside the Castle and Falcon, the local pub that Philip’s family owns and lives above. Philip’s father tells him that Uncle Alan killed him and he must avenge his death. When Philip realizes that Uncle Alan has designs on his mom and the family pub, Philip decides that something must be done. But it’s a much bigger job than he anticipated, especially when he is caught up by the usual distractions of childhood—a pretty girl, wayward friends, school bullies, and his own self-doubt. The Dead Fathers Club is a riveting, imaginative, and quirky update of Shakespeare’s great tragedy that will establish Matt Haig as a young writer of great talent and imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The story of Hamlet is not usually thought of as one meant for laughter. But Matt Haig's able retelling of the tale in The Dead Fathers Club will make you laugh, though it might also evoke a tear. Eleven-year-old Philip Noble is at his father's funeral when who should appear but his father's ghost, who wastes no time in telling Philip that his Uncle Alan, an auto mechanic, tampered with his car, causing the accident that killed him. He warns Philip that Uncle Alan will shortly be tampering with his mother too, because Unctuous Uncle Alan wants the pub that Philip's father owned.

The solution to this problem, according to Philip's dad, is that he must kill Uncle Alan. If he doesn't do it before Dad's next birthday, 11 weeks away, Dad will be consigned to the Terrors for all eternity. Philip agrees, in principle, but killing someone, especially without getting caught, isn't easy. But a promise is a promise, so Philip gives it a whirl, in fact, several whirls. Real life interferes in the persons of two school bullies, truly nasty and perverse thugs, who seem ready to kill Philip because they think it's funny that his father died. Philip also falls in love, and his Ophelia (named Leah) thinks that shoplifting is tons of fun. Poor Philip is in over his head in every way possible. There are many encounters with other Dead Fathers in a great sendup of ghostly dealings, Hamlet-like, on the moors, and several sly references to the play. There is even a character named Dane. The ending is not pure Shakespeare, but it is pure Haig and that is very good indeed. --Valerie Ryan

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Haig (The Last Family in England) creatively reanimates themes from Hamlet with an 11-year-old British protagonist who is commissioned to avenge his father's murder. After Philip Noble passes his hand through his father's flickering spirit at the funeral, Dad reveals the truth: it was conniving auto mechanic Uncle Alan who orchestrated the automobile "accident" that claimed his life, and Philip must kill Uncle Alan by dead Dad's next birthday—barely 11 weeks away—or he'll be consumed forever by the Terrors. Time is fleeting, however, as repugnant Uncle Alan has already begun to put the moves on Philip's mother and has taken over the family pub's operations. In animated, adolescent prose, Philip, goaded on by his father's ghost, plots his uncle's murder. Besides the time-sensitive obligation, Philip must also contend with the slings and arrows of adolescent life: friends, girls, meddling schoolteachers, bullies and peer pressure. The plucky hero impressively navigates the gloomy, pungent waters of retribution, death and guilt, and Haig does an enviable job of leavening a sad premise through the words and actions of a charming, resilient young man. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1st Us Edition edition (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670038334
• ISBN-13: 978-0670038336
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 1.2 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,291,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure voice in a boldly written tale sparks magic, July 29, 2007

By 

perrygirlblue "perrygirlblue" (Seacoast NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Fathers Club (Hardcover)

Loved it! Once started, it was one of those books I really looked forward to the time I could spend enjoying it. Haig's way of letting Philip tell his tale is bold and refreshing. I found the writing style intuitive rather than bothersome (and I'm an editor); it was an easy, quick read.

Haig has an incredible knack for resurging in us the bittersweet feelings and perspective of being a preteen--life's general confusion, uncertainty, anxiety, innocence and wonder--even if you didn't have to deal with deaths at that age!

While there were funny parts throughout, the chapter toward the end with the grandmother Nan and Philip was brilliantly hilarious. I would like to read that chapter again and again just for the kicks it gives on its own. Anyone who's had an elder family member in their midst can relate.

Big thanks and kudos to Matt Haig for writing this one--and doing it just the way he did.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Affecting, November 17, 2007

By 

Emily Baker (Boston MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Fathers Club (Hardcover)

The conceit of this book - Hamlet, in the form of a modern-day 11-year-old English kid - is a interesting lark. If you know nothing about Hamlet, you can enjoy this book about a troubled kid dealing with his own and his mother's grief (and school bullies), though it will seem very dark if you're unaware of the plotline to come. But the more you remember about the play, the more you'll enjoy it. You'll recognize Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, several key plot points and settings and speeches. And of course Philip's problems are the exact same as Hamlet's. I initially enjoyed the parallels, but as I drew nearer to the end of the book I got very concerned because, obviously, you hope for a happier ending for this kid. My lips are sealed at the ending, but I will say I did not regret reading the book.

Other points
- It is extremely ambiguous whether or not the dad's ghost is real. I think trying to figure this out was the most interesting part of the book. I'm still not certain. Very cleverly done.
- This is told using the logic and grammar of a kid going through a trauma. "Curious Incident" is a much better book that uses this same device. I loved that book. In this book, the run-on sentences and odd logical flow were very effective sometimes, but at other times I found them to be annoying/distracting. If you can't stand books that don't use standard conventions like quotation marks, this is not the book for you. Or maybe try the audiobook version.
- I enjoyed this book, but I honestly didn't find it to be funny. Maybe you have to be English to get some of the humor? Philip does make some keen observations which from adult perspective are witty. But there was much more tension in this book than humor to me.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reminded me of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME, March 9, 2007

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dead Fathers Club (Hardcover)

THE DEAD FATHER'S CLUB is loosely based on Shakespeare's HAMLET. Eleven-year-old Philip Noble loses his father in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, Brian Noble begins appearing to his son as a ghost, telling him his brother Alan had tampered with the brakes. Brian wants Philip to kill his brother.

The Shakespeare allusion continues when Alan begins to pursue Philip's mother. There's even a TV movie that's a lot like the play in Hamlet. Alan also begins to interfere in Brian's former business, a pub called the Castle and Falcon.

The similarity between the Shakespearean play and Haig's book ends with the narrator. We're not sure if Philip really sees his father's ghost or if he's having a nervous breakdown. The ghost also isn't that reliable. He keeps getting Philip in trouble.

Philip has a number of tormenters besides his father's ghost, mainly two bullies, Dominic Weekly and Jordan Harper, who refer to him as "schizo." They are relentless. They pursue Philip all over the school and out into the neighborhood. About the only time the ghost actually helps Philip is during a Rugby match.

I had some problems with a scene where Philip does an awfully advanced chemistry experiment for an eleven-year-old, but I imagine Haig needed it for plot purposes. There are also some philosophical meanderings that seem beyond a young boy. During one of Philip's emotional traumas Philips thinks to himself: "I thought why am I me why am I not a fish why am I not a loaf of bread why am I alive and most people are dead how do I know Im me how do I know Im alive . . ." That said, Haig does a fantastic job with Philip's "voice." His inability to make up his mind about just about everything is entirely appropriate for an eleven-year-old as well as Hamlet. One of the blurbs compares the book to THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTIME. I could certainly see the similarity

The ending will bother some people since Haig leaves us hanging in one important respect, but I thought, considering the story content, it was entirely appropriate.