The Enthusiast: A Novel (P.S.) [Paperback]

Charlie Haas (Author)

Book Description

Series: P.S. | Publication Date: May 26, 2009

Henry Bay has his own America going. If there's an offbeat interest or extreme sport that's poised to sweep the nation, chances are there's a magazine for its enthusiasts, and chances are also good that Henry has worked there. He's a modern nomad, associate-editing his way from state to state, exploring the small worlds that make up modern America from Spelunk to Ice Climbing, to Cozy, The Magazine of Tea.

But those are other people's interests—Henry's still looking for his own enthusiasm. He ends up finding more than he ever imagined in this energetic, hilarious debut novel from a surprising and promising new voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A Hollywood screenwriter turned novelist, Haas shows a skilled literary hand in his sharp first novel about college dropout Henry Bay, who turns into something of a serial associate editor at a series of fringe magazines, beginning with a stint at one geared toward kite buggy enthusiasts. From there, Henry bounces around the country taking low-paying editing jobs at enthusiast rags with such themes as crocheting, ice climbing and conspiracy theories. The compelling side characters are central to the novel's charm. These include Gerald, Henry's talkative friend, and Henry's brother, Barney, who transforms from a science prodigy and stem cell researcher into a secretive adrenaline junkie who may be on the hit list of Freebird, a Unabomber-like domestic terrorist. Haas plunges Henry into bizarre nooks where hobbies become obsessions and subsubcultures are formed, but the characters encountered aren't dismissed as freaks; rather, they're examined with a near curatorial zeal. Though the narrative could stand to go a little deeper into Henry's motivations, overall this is a slick first novel: funny, thought provoking and a little alarming. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“(An) eccentric, slyly romantic debut novel. At heart, Henry is an oddball innocent, a romantic in search of meaning that eludes him early on. (T)he book captures something at once fragile and vital --the excitement of the ordinary, the exhilaration of the everyday.” (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review )

“Witty and endearingly patriotic.” (Christian Science Monitor (Summer Reading List Pick) )

“THE ENTHUSIAST’s best quality: a virtual guarantee that each page will include at least one delightful and surprising turn of phrase that could have wandered in from a Frank O’Hara poem.” (San Francisco magazine )

“I am having the most wonderful day, lying on the couch and reading Charlie Haas’s brilliant book. It is wonderfully written, charming, wise, sometimes funny, always real. Henry is the perfect narrator, and the book reads like a dream.” (Anne Lamott )

“A charming, sly, and even wise first novel. (Haas) skillfully sketches memorable characters and places with a few pithy sentences, and his dialogue is often arch and very funny.” (Booklist )

“I loved this novel from start to finish. It’s always funny and often profound. Again and again there are single lines that are both hilarious and saddening, that are alive both on the surface of the novel and in the depths of experience. It’s a triumph, it’s unique.” (Greil Marcus )

“As impossible to categorize as it is to put down. THE ENTHUSIAST occupies a smart, weirdly fascinating, sometimes laugh-out-loud, ever soulful universe all its own. As close to perfect as any first novel should ever be allowed to be.” (Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty and Pain Killers )

“Haas shows a skilled literary hand in his sharp first novel. The compelling side characters are central to the novel’s charm…but the characters encountered aren’t dismissed as freaks; rather, they’re examined with a near curatorial zeal. This is a slick first novel: funny, thought provoking and a little alarming.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

“Funny and often moving.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review )

“(THE ENTHUSIAST) isn’t just a picaresque ride through the weirder side of the magazine industry, but a super-extended coming-of-age story. And a good one, too.” (The Onion AV Club )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061711829
• ISBN-13: 978-0061711824
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,548 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Enthusiast, May 26, 2009

By 

Little D (California and Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Enthusiast: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

The Enthusiast is Charlie Haas' first novel. A screenwriter and long time pro with words, Charlie brings us the journey of Henry Bay, a writer who himself travels actually and metaphorically through his magazine writing assignments -- encountering "enthusiasts" from crochet-junkies to kite-buggiers. Henry take us to places unknown, yet familiar, strange and remembered.

He reminds us of our American cultural eccentricities in fine detail. And then gradually we remember along with Henry who in the end entrusts us, confides in us, allows us into his wildly fascinating perspectives and his courageously foolish antics. Poignancy always present through the journey.

The humor in this book catches us off guard. Being inside Henry's journey is sometimes like being an ice chip in a Waring blender. But in the end, the quirky magic of this remarkable book entertains with truth and give us a whole bunch of big things to think about and characters that will not allow you to forget them.

Be prepared to become an enthusiast about writing like this. BRAVO to Mr. Haas on this marvelous work.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back-to-back reading, July 6, 2009

By 

M. Gordon (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Enthusiast: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

After I finished The Enthusiast I had a glass of wine and took a nap. When I woke up I felt compelled to read it all over again. This book captured my attention unlike anything else I've read in a very long time. Aside from Charles Portis, I rarely re-read anything and never back-to-back.

There is something about the language and pure affection for strange characters here that works so well. It's straightforward, matter of fact and hilarious. The character Henry Bay has true grit and so too, I think, does Mr. Haas.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and heartwarming, but more than that, July 27, 2009

By 

R. Kelly Wagner "[e-mail]" (MD, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Enthusiast: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

Any of you out there who have a hobby have probably subscribed to a magazine for that hobby; there's no hobby so obscure that someone won't put together a periodical of some sort. *Miniature Emu Breeder* or *Malted Milk Monthly* or *The Needlepoint Pincushion Collector* or "Hey, honey, the latest issue of *Alpaca Agility Training* is here, and there's an interview with the guy who's judging next month's East Dakota All-State Agility Trials! Maybe we can pick up some tips!"

Have you ever wondered how they come up with those magazines? What kind of people run them, and how on earth do they find people to write for them? And just how crazy do you have to be to work in a field like that? Somewhat crazy, as Henry finds out, when he accidentally finds himself writing for *Kite Buggy* and then gives up his pre-law college stint to become a roving associate editor of "enthusiast" magazines, enthusiasms being the fifty-cent word for hobbies. Some of the magazines don't last long, and sometimes Henry's enthusiasm for his job doesn't last long, so he travels the country, leaping from publisher to publisher, adding his ability to clean up bad writing to other people's knowledge of their hobbies - and he accidentally picks up a bit of knowledge everywhere he goes, too. The publishers run the gamut, from the small office that runs four completely different magazines, to the giant corporation gobbling up dozens of smaller publications that are gasping for breath, to the magazine put out by well-to-do hobbyists out of their spare bedroom. I recognized some of these types - I could guess what real-world publication "Crochet Life" is based on - and I loved the character Henry goes to interview and photograph, who has just decided to stop crocheting hobbits and unicorns, and start crocheting pictorial afghans of photographs of crime scenes. And as a tea drinker, I also loved "Cozy, the Magazine of Tea" and its slightly loopy publishers. I understood the language they were talking!

The different members of Henry's family each take different paths that aren't exactly what they planned, and each makes something different out of his path. Henry's brother Barney wants to be, and becomes, a brilliant scientist - but even he hits a few snags that no one could have foreseen. Henry's Dad makes unusual lemonade out of lemons. Henry's mom takes "a wait-and-see attitude toward adulthood."

I won't describe more of the plot - you can read the book for that! - but I will mention there's a happy ending. If there were a book magazine called "Happy Endings," I'd totally subscribe to it! There's also a bunch of stuff after the ending, like the extras on a DVD; definitely worth reading. For example, the Reading Group Questions, which include "Who brought this salad?" and "Is someone sitting here?"

As well as enjoying the fun story and great characters, I have to mention how much I appreciate that this book has been adequately proofread and copy-edited, so that the reader isn't distracted by word misusage, random stray apostrophes, and typos.

If you manage to finish this book without wanting to subscribe to "Clayton," the magazine for people who collect Claytons, you are missing something.