Customer Reviews

The Ha-Ha: A Novel

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It's a cliché but I found myself rationing the amount of this book I would read each day because I didn't want it to end and I wanted to savor its unselfconscious wisdom slowly. Frankly, I've never read anything like it. It's told from inside the head of a man whose Vietnam War head injury leaves him unable to speak. But his internal monolog is so rich, observant, feelingful that the pain of his not being able to express himself except through his actions becomes a paean to the virtues of patience over adversity, expression of love through loving actions rather than words, and the wisdom of living life as it is, not as it might have been. King's prose is carefully and poetically chosen. His observations of the little things feel true and important. I am ready to predict from this first novel that this is an important writer just revving up for a huge career.

Scott Morrison

Dave King's THE HA-HA gives a unique look into the mind of a man unable to speak, and while this novel succeeds on many levels, its greatest success comes in effectively duplicating in the reader's mind the same frustrations felt by the lead character, Howard. At every turn, this story tugs at your heartstrings, making you wish poor Howard were able to communicate his feelings for his old flame, Sylvia, and her son, Ryan. This is a true tour de force of point-of-view characterization, and for any readers who enjoy a good character-driven story, this is a remarkable novel.

This book, so different from most of today's action/romance schlock, grabs your heart and twists it until it breaks, yet the humanity of the characters offers hope to alleviate the pain. Dave King brings a profound empathy to his story of a man thrust inward by his disability who learns that he still can have a meaningful - even fulfilling - life, can reach out to make a difference in the lives of others, can move beyond his decades-old memories. Not an easy read, but an important one which will stay with you long after the last page is read. This is literature at its finest.

At first I feared this would be one of those novels that made me wish I lived in such a wondrously blessed placed but, happily (?), the book doesn't go in that direction and that's its saving grace. Yet, it is chock full of flawed characters the reader comes to regard affectionately or appreciatively and there's only one particularly fecklessly evil player (and even she isn't so much evil as disgustingly selfish). All set in a mid-western town so well drawn. LOVED this book! It's a debut; can't wait to see what King does next. Heh, no pressure, buddy. But, hurry up please, Dave King. My god you've done good!

What a great book.

Dave King has rendered the inner world of the mostly silent Howard with deft strokes. I find myself thinking about Howard and his housemates still, days after I finished reading, and hoping all is well.

Howard is a damaged character. But he is far from pitiful. I was so glad that King found a way to avoid the Forrest Gump detour he seemed headed for. King (and Howard) are brilliant observers of life--his portrayal of the Snakes baseball team, one level below the official little league teams--was dead on. Beyond that, the world that Howard built for himself in the wake of his brain-damaging war injury and parents' deaths, gives me hope. I love that he is finding his way through this world.

This book stays with you.

I you take this plot at face value, this is what you get: a Viet Nam vet who rents rooms to boarders and then establishes a relationship with the seven year old son of his old true love who is going into rehab. The boarders and the narrator establish a relationship with the boy and they are torn when he returns to his mother. The boy shows them love, brings them together and true love wins out at the end.

Not a very appetizing nor original format.

What makes this novel different and intriguing, is the narrator, Howie, was injured in Viet Nam and is now a mute. Worse yet, he has difficulty reading and writing so can not fall back on notes.

The author gives a wonderful perspective. At times, the narrator is as frustrated as one would expect by his handicap. At other times, though, he seems to take comfort in the shelter it can provide. Other times, he fantasizes about eloquent speeches he would make both in every day situations and situations much less likely, like giving the toast at the boy's future wedding. These thoughts make the reader think that Howie is holding back on his abilities.

The characters and their relationships are diverse and always interesting. There are some aspects that are somewhat unrealistic, but feel-good. For one, Howie developes a good relationship with Nit and Nat, two boarders for whom he had no use before the boy entered their lives. Of course, everything turns out wonderful in the end, but the feel good aspects just make the reader smile - nothing the matter with the main characters live happily ever after every now and then.

On the other hand there are depressing scenes. There are times when Howie loses it. There is also a family meeting day at the rehab center that Howie is forced to go to that varies between hysterical and horribly depressing.

Howie is a narrator/character that grabs the reader. I found myself trying to imagine how I would communicate in my life if I could not speak.

Despite the feel good ending, this is a haunting novel that will stay with the reader a long time. Highly recommended.

Very very few books have touched my soul as did The Ha Ha. As I read it, I had to stop many times to contemplate Howard's existence; his world. What might if feel like to be this extraordinary yet prosaic protagonist. How do we communicate as one human being to another? What happens to our world and our relationships when we cannot speak or read or write - but can still think and feel? Author Dave King casts a brilliant light on this compelling and at times heartbreaking condition - to think but not to speak. To hear but not to be able to respond. To understand but not have the ability to read. Communication is all we have to reach out to another person; to engender love or hate; to learn and share experience. Yet in some subtle way, Howard is able to tell os of his life through the words of King. It is extraordinary and subtle.
I had to stop at various points in the book to let myself feel the events in the daily lives of the protagonist and of the very few people with whom he creates a bond. Howard's inability to communicate in the conventional sense does not leave us with a bitter or solitary man. Rather, through his daily experiences, sad, funny, frustrating, hopeful we feel Howard's reality as less than an end to his life but instead, an example of the wonderful ability we all have to go beyond our capabilities, to be "better than ourselves."
This is a very special book making the reader want to contemplate many of the daily events, banal and monumental, that make up the character of our own lives. I found the mundane events of Howard's life to be the most profound and touching. His view of the world has a puzzled clarity to it which made him "real" to me.
And I am ever so grateful that our world has those few very special writers who offer us such a gifts as this illuminating book of a life.

Three decades ago while on his first month of duty in Viet Nam, Howard Kapostash suffered a head injury that devastated his communication abilities. Though his intelligence remained average, he no longer could speak, nor write or read. His emotional quotient was already lagging before the trauma and over the subsequent thirty years since has not developed. Howard shares his childhood home with Vietnamese-American Laurel, who makes specialty soups for local restaurants; and Steve and Harrison two housepainters he calls to himself Nit and Nat.

Taking advantage that Howard still has some feelings for her, Sylvia dumps her reticent nine-year-old child Ryan on Howard to take care of him while she is away though he has no experience with children. This dysfunctional commune soon comes together as the four adults responsibly and lovingly rally for the child. As the quartet learn about what life is all about, Sylvia will return soon and take away their catalyst, but will each one slip back to indifference and irresponsibility?

Though what happens to the foursome when Ryan enters their lives seems too obvious and expected, readers will not care as Dave King provides a deep look at the importance of having a reason to live not jus exist. The story line is terrific as the four adults begin to mature and provide stability to the introverted child who changed their lives for the better. Fans will enjoy this fine character study as everyone begins to heal because now they have a cause.

Harriet Klausner

Dave King creates an interesting, complex narrator in Howard Kapostash. Through him, King deftly conveys the frustrations of a Viet Nam vet who can no longer communicate through speech or writing due to an injury sustained in the war. To some extent this is an anti-war novel, but I would argue that the anti-war message is diluted by Kapostash's self-destructive and insular tendencies. He cuts himself off from those willing to accept him and be his friend. He is not a vet who has been abandoned and forgotten by everyone, in fact he stands in stark contrast to the homeless vet whom he abuses and who haunts him.

Yet, he chooses to pursue a hopeless relationship with his high school flame, Sylvia, an ego-centric manipulator of Howard, her own son, and anyone else who will pay attention to her complaining. If there is a failing in this book, the crux of it lies in this situation: Howard is so well-drawn as an intelligent, sensitive man, that he seems too savvy to continue his victimization at the hands of Sylvia whose attempt at rehab turns out to be merely an exchange of one type of ego-centrism for another.

Howard's own issues are much more interesting and are emphasized in his relationships with those in his life besides Sylvia. Howard's housemates are all well-drawn, engaging characters who demonstrate the ability to grow, as well as transcend Howard's initial assessments of them. So are those who inhabit Howard's vocational life as a handiman for a convent. Sylvia's son, Ryan is the glue that holds all these characters together. He is deftly drawn and serves to bring out the characters of others around him, rather than overshadow them as the cliche of a troubled youth.

King uses Kapostash's disability to emphasize society's unease with differences. Howard is victimized by ignorance and misunderstanding of his disability and by those who pretend he is invisible. Through the interesting mix of characters in the story, readers come to see the value in the differences that set personalities apart and spice our lives. The results of Sylvia's rehab is testimony to this. Her self-centered nature doesn't change, but she is less interesting as a person because she has forsaken her uniqueness for an institutional version of normalcy.

Finally, the inventive use of the imagery-symbolism of the ha-ha--the wall that lies below the surface of the landscape, giving the impression of an unbroken vista. It takes on many readings in this compelling exploration of what goes on below the surfaces of our lives.

It doesn't get better than this. Dave King's first novel is miraculous, maddening in its brilliance, vexing in its beauty, but its sentences dig deepest. Each phrase, each image--so clear, so true. Not since AS I LAY DYING have I been so moved as I was when I first read THE HA-HA, and I don't think it is hyperbole to state, without reservation and in utter awe, that King's book is as perfectly crafted as THE GREAT GATSBY. Big shoes to fill, to be sure, and of course, only time will tell what the world will make of THE HA-HA, but if there is any justice in the world (and, these days, justice seems to be in short demand), THE HA-HA will be required reading not just at every school and detention center and corporate center in America but in the Armed Forces as well. (George Bush, read this book.) It has been months since I finished this book, and, to this day, I find myself getting coffee at the local cafe and thinking to myself, What would Howie do now? Or on the subway, surrounded by anonymous faces, How would Howie fit in? And I feel, for a moment at least, as if I have found not only a great character and a great heart but a friend in Howard Kapotash. Finally, finally, someone has written the book I have longed to read, and his name is Dave King.