The Horned Man: A Novel [Paperback]

James Lasdun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

"Unputdownable... a masterpiece of chilling, mesmerizing control.'"—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

The Horned Man opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying tale of a man losing his place in the world. As Lawrence Miller—an English expatriate and professor of gender studies—tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings, we descend into a world of subtly deceptive appearances where persecutor and victim continually shift roles, where paranoia assumes an air of calm rationality, and where enlightenment itself casts a darkness in which the most nightmarish acts occur. As the novel races to its shocking conclusion, we follow Miller as he traverses the streets of Manhattan and the decaying suburbs beyond, in terrified pursuit of his pursuers. Written with sinuous grace and intellectual acuity, The Horned Man is an extraordinary, unforgettable first novel by an acclaimed writer and poet of unusual power. Reading group guide included.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, April 2002: Already a sensation in his native England, this first novel by expatriate James Lasdun is one of the most disturbing and compelling books you are likely to read this year.

The protagonist, Lawrence Miller, is himself an expat teaching gender studies at a small college located just outside New York City. He is a member of the sexual harassment committee which meets on a regular basis to walk that fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous of political correctness.

Miller's well-ordered life starts to disintegrate one day when he takes a book from the shelf in his office to find that the bookmark has been moved several pages although, as far as he knows, nobody has visited his office. An easily explained lapse of memory perhaps, but Miller decides he will discuss it with the therapist he has been seeing in Manhattan since his wife left him. He is shocked as he approaches her office to see the therapist walking towards him, but she turns off towards Central Park before he can speak to her and he then loses sight of her. When he arrives at her office, however, she is waiting for him as usual and assures him that she has not left her office; in fact, she is always with another patient before Miller's appointment.

So begins the disorientation of Lawrence Miller. He has his little obsessions, of course--he won't pick up the messages on his answering machine, for instance, in order to convince himself that while he was out his wife tried to call him. Still in love with her, he hopes that she will call and want to return to him. But this is just a game he plays, part of his very human nature. He is in no way the sort of man who is paranoid or imagines conspiracies, but the unexplained incidents seem to be increasing.

Miller tries to rationalize what is happening, but he can't help thinking, nor can we, that he has become the target of somebody who wishes him harm. And when a series of murders takes place, Miller begins to suspect that he is being set up to take the blame for these murders by a devious and diabolical mind.

Lawrence Miller struggles to loosen the hold his pursuers have on him, but the more he struggles the more he appears to be drowning. Try to sleep after reading his terrifying story. --Otto Penzler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

A lonely, eccentric New York academic discovers his office is also home to a deranged squatter in this startling, brilliantly mysterious debut novel by poet and short story writer Lasdun. Alerted by misplaced bookmarks, deleted computer files and a dirty bed sheet under his desk, Brit Lawrence Miller, a professor of gender studies at Arthur Clay College, becomes convinced that a stranger is camping out nightly in his office. Though preoccupied by his wife's recent decampment and his membership on the college's sexual harassment committee, Lawrence fixates on the illustrious Professor Trumilcik, an Eastern European womanizer and ex-board member, who went mad on campus one afternoon and never returned. Could he be the uninvited guest? The shocking news that several area women have been found brutally beaten to death heightens Lawrence's hysteria. Erratic behavior ruins a date with Elaine, the school attorney, and confuses his relationship with his therapist. When a heavy metal pipe falls out of his briefcase, Lawrence has to wonder: could this be the weapon used in the killings? As reality slips and slides, Lawrence, in full paranoia mode, comes to believe that Trumilcik is framing him for the murders. References to the works of Kafka and to mystical pharmacology add depth and insight, though a few key tense moments are squelched by lengthy exposition of the protagonist's compulsivethought processes. Introspective readers with a taste for the bizarre will appreciate Lasdun's eerily elusiveconclusion, but those seeking definitive closure will be left scratching their heads. Rights sold in France, Germany, Holland, Italy and the U.K.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393324389
• ISBN-13: 978-0393324389
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars taut psychological thriller, March 28, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Horned Man (Hardcover)

Lawrence Miller left England over seven years ago to come to the United States where he taught gender studies at many different colleges. When he arrived in New York, he met Carol and later married her, tremendously simplifying his obtaining a permanent visa. He and Carol are separated but not a day doesn't go by that he doesn't miss her or hope that they will reconcile.

He currently teaches at Arthur Clay College in a Manhattan suburb when he discovers that the previous occupant of his office walked away from this job. When pranks appear, Lawrence thinks that the previous occupant is hiding out in his office. When the capers escalate into something far more dangerous, a determined Lawrence plans to confront his tormentor who he believes is the reason Carol is keeping her distance from him.

James Lasdun's debut novel is a powerful tour-de force about a man's ability to twist reality to suit his need to delude himself from the truth. Still the question the reader must ask is the simple paradox that though a person is paranoid, some one still might be out to get him or her. So is some one out to get the paranoid somewhat tormented Lawrence or is the threat to his peace inside his mind? THE HORNED MAN is worth reading for those fans who enjoy a taut psychological thriller similar to the Dustin Hoffman movie Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

Harriet Klausner

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Surreal Misadventure, October 5, 2002

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Horned Man (Hardcover)

Lawrence Miller, college professor, recently separated from his wife Carol, member of the Sexual Harrassment Committee, is an intelligent and thoughtful man, a man who is seeing a psychoanalyst, controlled, polite, not given to extremes of behavior; not that is, until the events described in this book, and the ensuing disintegration of his quiet and controlled life.

The story can be taken in many ways. Is Miller really at the focal point of a malign conspiracy? Or is he slowly going psychotic? The author circles around his characters and situations, peeling away layer after layer, revealing unsuspected depths of misery. Miller is more than a college professor going through a bad patch; he is a strangely oblivious man, a man who misunderstands social cues in a radical and frightening way, a man who seems oblivious to the wreckage he creates in those who try to relate to him. But is he more than this, maybe even a killer? Well, let the reader decide.

Author James Lasdun is a master of surrealistic prose, written in a disarmingly lucid and simple way. You think he is telling a simple story, then you find yourself confused, perplexed and horrified. What is really going on? The writing is beautiful, laden with symbolism and poetic nuance. The book is not for everyone but I found it well done and well worth reading.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars DISAPPOINTING AND PREDICTABLE, May 11, 2003

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Horned Man (Hardcover)

I had high hopes for this novel when I first saw it, then read about it - from the inside flap: `(the book) opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying tale of a man losing his place in the world'. Already, I'm thinking `Kafka' - and my premonition was dead-on. Not only are there many allusions to Kafka's writings in this novel, there are direct references to the Master. One of his stories is mentioned, as well as a play based upon it (`Blumfeld, an elderly bachelor'). The play especially figures in the novel's plot in a large way - and there are many Kafka-esque twists and turns throughout the book.

My problem is this is not with Lasdun admiring and emulating Kafka to a degree. In Kafka's works, the reader comes to expect these twists and turns - they are not always gentle one, sometimes leaving the reader with the feeling that he or she has been jerked off-path in whatever direction Kafka wishes to lead us. In the case of Lasdun's novel, I was left with the distinct feeling that I had been manipulated - and in several cases, I could see the twists coming a mile away, `with the headlights on' as they say. I found this `telegraphing' of the plot twists to be increasingly overt as the novel wore on. It left the work with an air of derivation, of the work of a poseur attempting to dress it up as being more intellectual than it really is. I don't mean this to come across as too heavy-handed a criticism - Lasdun is a talented writer, I just think he needs to come up with a method of plot development that is a bit smoother, one that doesn't `try so hard'.