Customer Reviews

The Dead Fathers Club

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

British writer Matt Haig makes his American debut with The Dead Fathers Club, a story that owes a bit to Shakespeare (Hamlet) and a great deal to Haig's fertile imagination, humor, and ability to tug on heartstrings.

Protagonist Philip Noble is an 11-year-old boy who lives above a pub, the Castle and Falcon, which his family owns. He has just lost his father. Death came in an automobile accident but Philip's father isn't totally gone as he appears to Philip at his wake.

It seems that when fathers are murdered they become members of the Dead Fathers Club, and this is not an association that Philip's dad wished to join. He informs his son that his death was not an accident but was planned by sneaky, conniving Uncle Alan, an auto mechanic, who put the kibosh on his car. Further, Philip is told that he must avenge his dad's death and he must do it rather quickly - before his late father's next birthday.

Now, this is a pretty tall order for a young boy who is already having difficulty dealing with life let alone death. There are school bullies, pretty girls, lessons to be done, panic attacks to be overcome and other attendant vicissitudes of simply being a pre-teen boy.

Nonetheless, when he realizes that the villainous Alan has eyes for his mother and to taking over the pub, Philip realizes that something must be done.

Twelve-year-old Andrew Dennis won last year's BBC Audiobooks "Voice of Bath" competition, and one knows why when hearing his reading of The Dead Fathers Club. He aptly expresses Philip's doubts, fears, and determination. This is an audiobook that will be enjoyed by both adults and young listeners.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

"Hamlet" is one of my favorite plays -- the morbidity is right up my alley. I really loved Matt Haig's spin on the story. The narrator's innocence allowed for some very funny moments, but the humor somehow fit nicely against the somber premise of a dead father, a broken family, and the tortures of grief. I enjoyed it immensely and couldn't put it down.

This book would have gotten five stars from me, but there were a few things about it that bothered me. Lack of resolution was one. The ending wasn't wholly unsatisfying, but it did leave me with questions that I wish Haig had taken the time to answer. Also, I sometimes found it hard to believe that the narrator was eleven years old. Sometimes he sounded much too young, while other times he seemed to have philosophical wisdom beyond his years. I tried to compare him to the eleven-year-old boys I've met, and he didn't seem too consistent with them.

All in all, though, this was a great story and as long as you're open to an unorthodox style and a few Shakespearian themes, you'll probably enjoy it.

A great little book about an eleven year old kid named Philip Noble, whose father, Brian, dies in the car accident and letter comes to him as a ghost and demands to revenge him, since, as he claims, his brother, Uncle Alan to Philip, killed him by fixing his brakes. In revenge he must kill his uncle or the fathers ghost is to suffer Terrors for eternity and never know the rest. Now, this is where story really looks interesting, since it is told by the Philip and we never know what is his imagination and what is real. He appears rather in the deranged state of mind, tormented by ghosts, his memory and wild imagination. To me it reads like exploration of madness rather than a ghost story. The ghost himself does not really appear to help Brian or even tell him the truth. All this ends up really bad for everyone involved.

The most appealing part of the book is a conundrum, if Brian's ghost is real or is a manifestation of psychosis of Philip. It is told in such a way, so as to be right on the edge of brining reader to one conclusion or the other. The other part is Philip's voice, language and his overall confused state of mind, which is exposed with great skill by the author. At first, I thought that being written with the child's voice is a big problem for the book, but as the books progressed it became clear that it greatly added to the story and perhaps is the only way tell it.

British writer Matt Haig made his American debut with The Dead Fathers Club, a story that owes a bit to Shakespeare (Hamlet) and a great deal to Haig's fertile imagination, humor, and ability to tug on heartstrings.

Protagonist Philip Noble is an 11-year-old boy who lives above a pub, the Castle and Falcon, which his family owns. He has just lost his father. Death came in an automobile accident but Philip's father isn't totally gone as he appears to Philip at his wake.

It seems that when fathers are murdered they become members of the Dead Fathers Club, and this is not an association that Philip's dad wished to join. He informs his son that his death was not an accident but was planned by sneaky, conniving Uncle Alan, an auto mechanic, who put the kibosh on his car. Further, Philip is told that he must avenge his dad's death and he must do it rather quickly - before his late father's next birthday.

Now, this is a pretty tall order for a young boy who is already having difficulty dealing with life let alone death. There are school bullies, pretty girls, lessons to be done, panic attacks to be overcome and other attendant vicissitudes of simply being a pre-teen boy.

Nonetheless, when he realizes that the villainous Alan has eyes for his mother and to taking over the pub, Philip realizes that something must be done.

Twelve-year-old Andrew Dennis won last year's BBC Audiobooks "Voice of Bath" competition, and one knows why when hearing his reading of The Dead Fathers Club. He aptly expresses Philip's doubts, fears, and determination. This is an audiobook that will be enjoyed by both adults and young listeners.

- Gail Cooke

Both the author and the plot were completely new to me as I must be one of the 1% of the population who hasn't read or seen Hamlet.

This isn't a drawback though, it was just a fresh new story for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed picking up.

Eleven year old Philip Noble has recently been bereaved. His dad Brian has died in a car accident...but when he appears to Philip he tells him he was murdered and needs Philips help to avenge his death before it's too late and he's doomed to experience 'the terrors' forever. "If the Living don't take Revenge in the No Time the ghosts stay ghosts forever".

I really enjoyed the 'normality' of the situation; Philip's tropical fish, and that he finds parallels between the Roman History he's learning at school and his own life.

Even in death, the ghosts of dads in Newark meet near the pub 'The Castle and Falcon', where Brian was landlord (and Philip lives) because it's the oldest pub in town and most of them went there in life. As we read further, the story takes a more sombre turn and questions the fragility of the mind when bereaved.

Intelligently written it is both humourous and poignant and the author illustrates the story brilliantly with cleverly chosen words.

British writer Matt Haig made his American debut with The Dead Fathers Club, a story that owes a bit to Shakespeare (Hamlet) and a great deal to Haig's fertile imagination, humor, and ability to tug on heartstrings.

Protagonist Philip Noble is an 11-year-old boy who lives above a pub, the Castle and Falcon, which his family owns. He has just lost his father. Death came in an automobile accident but Philip's father isn't totally gone as he appears to Philip at his wake.

It seems that when fathers are murdered they become members of the Dead Fathers Club, and this is not an association that Philip's dad wished to join. He informs his son that his death was not an accident but was planned by sneaky, conniving Uncle Alan, an auto mechanic, who put the kibosh on his car. Further, Philip is told that he must avenge his dad's death and he must do it rather quickly - before his late father's next birthday.

Now, this is a pretty tall order for a young boy who is already having difficulty dealing with life let alone death. There are school bullies, pretty girls, lessons to be done, panic attacks to be overcome and other attendant vicissitudes of simply being a pre-teen boy.

Nonetheless, when he realizes that the villainous Alan has eyes for his mother and to taking over the pub, Philip realizes that something must be done.

Twelve-year-old Andrew Dennis won last year's BBC Audiobooks "Voice of Bath" competition, and one knows why when hearing his reading of The Dead Fathers Club. He aptly expresses Philip's doubts, fears, and determination. This is an audiobook that will be enjoyed by both adults and young listeners.

- Gail Cooke

The main idea for this book is inherently an interesting one: take Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and turn it into a modern day tale of a ghost urging his son to take revenge against his murderer. There are so many parallels to the Bard's play that anyone reasonably familiar with the play can immediately decide which characters in the book are like the characters in the play. That's one of the interesting parts of the book, and perhaps the only one, at times. The action follows, to a great extent, the play, and there are some scenes lifted almost directly from Shakespeare. I did enjoy the book, but it kind of left me with an unfulfilled feeling at the end, which is why I gave it 4 stars. Read it, and judge it, for yourself.