Following his much-celebrated debut, Horace Afoot, Frederick Reuss returns with another endearing hero. This time it's a six-year-old Gnostic with a photographic memory. Henry is being reared - at least intermittently - by gamblers, thieves, whores, and priests in one of America's most notorious sin cities. But from time to time, he seems to believe that he's living as a saint in fifth century Byzantium. As in Horace Afoot, Frederick Reuss's new novel describes the labyrinthine terrain in which we shape our identities and search for meaning. And like Horace, young henry places his questions into a distant and possibly wiser world. For some reason, the stories of ancient Byzantium help henry make sense of his absurd - and sometimes dangerous - existence. Henry of Atlantic City is an ironic, funny, and heart rending account of the ways we become our own saviors by choosing what to believe.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A wonderful foil for an uncaring world, six-year-old Henry wants to be a saint: he's read up on fifth-century Byzantium, and on the early Christian heresy called Gnosticism, and he brings his erudition to bear on sordid modern surroundings in Reuss's affecting, original second novel (after the praised Horace Afoot). Henry's father is a scheming embezzler who works as head of security at Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City. Henry's command of his favored ancient writers is abetted by Sy, his father's reluctant co-conspirator, an autodidactic blackjack dealer with his own metaphysical facility. (The Catholic priests at Henry's school show interest in his Gnosticism, too, but of course they want him to abjure it.) Some of the action in Reuss's slender plot involves the father's criminal machinations. The rest of it follows disputes over Henry's custody. He has grown up first around the casino, then temporarily with Sy's sister in Philadelphia. Placed with a foster family, the callous, duplicitous O'Briens, he tries to run away, ends up staying in St. Jude's Home for Boys and (among other misadventures) lets a gorilla out of a zoo. Reuss's mannerAa spare third-person narrative, sticking largely to terms and phrases Henry knowsAbecomes a courageously concentrated show of authorial control and tonal fidelity (though it does slip up a bit near the end). Henry's thoughts, and his speeches to other characters, mix quotes from Gnostic scriptures and Byzantine history with his questions about the mechanics of a befuddling adult world. Everything Henry sees gets a Byzantine gloss: cars can be chariots, and a tycoon Henry meets becomes the emperor Justinian. The play of past and present, heretical theology and life-experience, through Henry's consciousness yields some neat, sophisticated jokes. More often Reuss achieves a brilliant pathos, reminding us that at any age "loneliness is the most meaningless treasure in existence." (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Six-year-old Henry is a neglected child growing up in an Atlantic City hotel and casino. Obsessed with the ancient Gnostics, he imagines himself a saint in fifth-century Byzantium. The contrast between Henry's spiritual idealism and the tawdry reality of his world makes reading this very original novel a moving experience. (LJ 7/99)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best book I've read this year.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Henry of Atlantic City (Hardcover)
the dialogue is witty. the boy-saint is an absorbing epic character. the history gives it an atmosphere of magic and grandeur...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Saint of Marvin Gardens,
By
This review is from: Henry of Atlantic City (Hardcover)
This weird book about a brilliant kid stuck in the weirdest family situation is set, like many contemporary novels, between the old world (the church, an orphanage) and the bright, shiny, new one (Atlantic City). Many authors are using playlands -- Las Vegas for Tim Powers, theme parks for George Saunders -- as metaphors for contemporary society. Thus the bizarre casino land in which Henry is raised, and the makeshift families he moves between, are something he may need to escape from but can't. And Reuss perhaps says this is a good thing. What is this novel saying about gnosticism and faith? And what's that whole zoo thing? Of course, in every novel there's a supreme intelligence hovering over the action -- that of the writer. Here the writer's hand seems to be forcing the action into the form of an allegory. Don't get me wrong; it's an enjoyable read. Do the good guys win? Not necessarily.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprising, insightful novel,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Henry of Atlantic City: A Novel (Paperback)
I've gotten hooked on Frederick Reuss. After devouring "Horace Afoot," his first novel, I couldn't wait to start "Henry of Atlantic City." I wasn't disappointed.
Henry is a little boy, age indeterminate, with an unusual response to an unusual upbringing. He communicates primarily through references to ancient Gnostic texts. He appears to perceive the world around him through a warped lens that shows, by turns, the streets and palaces of ancient Byzantium and the modern-day boardwalk and casinos of Atlantic City. Not surprisingly, virtually none of the adults he meets have any idea how to treat this bright but puzzling child who thinks he is (or is becoming) a saint. Through Henry's eyes, the other characters become Byzantine figures that serve as almost Jungian archetypes, offering insights into the nature of humanity and inhumanity, cruelty and love. Continuing, in a fashion, a theme explored in "Horace Afoot," Henry is who he is in part because of what he reads, and how he applies it to the world around him. I loved this book, and I loved Henry.
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