Customer Reviews

The Enthusiast: A Novel (P.S.)

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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.

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.

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.

The problem with most first novels is they try and do too much (bloated prose), try too hard (to be the next Salinger), sink under the weight of the author's ego (lookit me ma!), and be too much, when they should just... be. Charlie Haas has no such problem with The Enthusiast. In fact, what's surprising is how much fascination, how much life, energy, and humor (and NOT of the putrescent I'm-so-ironic variety) he finds in the utterly (or should i say seemingly) mundane. There is life in the them thar hills! If you think a book (albeit fiction) could never compete with the web in plumbing the micro-worlds of our lives, you need to read this book. If you always knew it could, you need to read this book. Heck, just read this book. There is no doubt from the first sentence that Haas can write. What's so uplifting what that writing reveals: The captivating story of Henry Bay's journey through America's enthusiastic underbelly of tea, kite buggy-ing, martial arts and more as he searches for his own internal passion. Enjoy!

Charlie Haas has written a gem of a novel about Henry Bay, a young man in awe of his older brother, Barney. A brilliant scientist, Barney is disappointed in Henry's decision to forgo law school to write for a small press magazine. And Henry is hurt by his brother's disappointment. A brother whose approval and simple inclusion of the word "we" left Henry "feeling like an ex-kid, a tetherball cut loose and flying."

But Barney's disappointment is pure joy for the reader who gets to follow Henry in a U-Haul across America, on kite buggy rides, ice climbing, and into caves. And if that isn't interesting enough, let me introduce you to a few of the characters along the way: Wendy, a crochet artist Henry meets during his stint at Crochet Life (I will not reveal what she crochets because it's one of those gems I don't want to deprive you of finding yourself). At Spelunk he meets Larry, a smart but cave-dwelling market researcher (who takes Henry's measure and throws a few truths his way). At Cozy he meets Agnes and Richard, (perhaps my favorites) a couple of hard-partying, music loving, tea enthusiast. (Who knew tea could be so entertaining and funny!)

Of course, there is love and heartbreak and more love. And Henry's complicated relationship with his brother, Barney. (One of the best brother stories I've ever read.) But I don't want to give anything away. Because Charlie Hass is such an excellent writer, you will be richer for letting him tell his heart-warming and hilarious story of self-acceptance and Henry Bay.

The Enthusiast by Charlie Haas is a poet's novel. It's zippy, clever, romantic, odd, and heartbreakingly tender.

Henry Bay is a nervous southern California kid who grows up in an upscale development of cookie-cutter houses. Henry is curious, an acute observer, and a walloped baby seal when his father's job disappears overnight with the local industry. Dad mopes, then lands a job cutting up veggies for a restaurant salad bar. Mom frets in the shadows. Henry's science-oriented, genius brother and Henry look forward to one thing--getting out.

Both accomplish this goal, but in different ways. Henry's brother thrives in school and eventually conducts research in a Midwestern lab. Henry staggers through a moment or two of college, then accepts a job at the first of many weird magazines for enthusiasts of crocheting, strange-looking animals, tea, kite buggying...think of any hobby or pursuit, and you can bet there's a magazine for the people who do it.

This in itself is one of the guilty pleasures of this story, for Haas slows us down (even as he speeds deliciously along) to consider the truth that we really do live in a multi-dimensional world, right here, right now. So many enthusiasms, so many clubs, so many tiny communities making up the whole.

Another pleasure, for me, is the way Henry crisscrosses America, visiting and living in small, never remembered communities that make up a parallel America, one outside of New York/Los Angeles/Chicago/Boston/Philadelphia. If you've ever done some long-distance driving across this nation, you'll recognize these places with a mixture of nostalgia and terror; if you haven't, Hass's descriptions will make you want to go to see for yourself.

The third gift Hass delivers in The Enthusiast is an opportunity to reconnect with your own family drama. Henry's father's fall and long recovery may feel like your father's, uncle's, or your own passage through the career blender. His mother's emotional distance may evoke memories of the women in your own life who have coped with disappointment and despair while still doing what women do--hold the center for all around them.

There is a moment when Henry is driving from the hospital where he's visited his brother, who had fallen and suffered a serious head injury. At the wheel, Henry begins to cry. In that moment, I felt like crying, too, for all of the injuries we suffer, for how vulnerable we truly are.

Only a wonderful writer can bring you to tears. So, meet Charlie Haas. Get ready to laugh till your sides ache, and get out the hankie.

--Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor ([...]), is the author of POETRY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE from Free Press.

"The Enthusiast" is a pleasure to read. It's got heart, wit and soul and it's often hugely funny. Henry Bay travels from specialty magazine to specialty magazine, learning the lingo and meeting eccentrics within each niche. Haas, a veteran movie and magazine writer, serves up feels-real dialog and fresh, savory imagery on every page.

I loved this book. Yes, I know the author from college, so of course that could be considered reasonable cause to recuse my response. But this first novel is such a masterfully warm, smart, endearing, memorable work that I can't not say, READ IT, YOU'LL LOVE IT TOO.

Haas has a cadence and a point of view that create a refreshingly cheery brand of irony and satire. His descriptions of a multi-faceted, not ready for prime time America are so well crafted, I kept saying to myself, "Yes! That's just the way it smells/looks/feels!" And the meta-extras at the end of the book are every bit as entertaining as the text itself.

Bravo Charlie. Based on my read, I have only one recommendation: Write another.