House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy (New Directions Paperbook) [Hardcover]

B. S. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1986 | Series: New Directions Paperbook (Book 617)

James Joyce's/Finnegan's Wake. A Symposium featuring Beckett, Jolas, and more.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Johnson's fifth novel, originally published in Britain in 1971, takes place during Social Evening at a home for the aged. The night's bizarre activities (among them a game of Pass the Parcel in which the "prize" is a package of dog droppings) are seen through the eyes of first one resident then another, until we come to despotic House Mother herself. The picture that emerges is of a shabby band of survivors, some of them scarcely conscious, lorded over by a psychopath: "I disgust them in order that they may not be disgusted with themselves." An original if dispiriting performance, part experiment, part dirty joke, for collections of modernist fiction. Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (April 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811209806
• ISBN-13: 978-0811209809
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,165,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A phenomenal technical achievement, December 17, 1999

By 

"jules_joseph" - See all my reviews

This review is from: House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy (Paperback)

This book examines the events of one evening in an old people's home. It consists of nine first person narratives, the first eight belonging to the inmates and the ninth, and last, being that of the nurse or "House Mother". The innovative technique used by Johnson is to make each line in each section correspond to the same moment in time. Each section is prefaced with a list of the various infirmities and deficiencies suffered by that person (including a CQ count, used to assess senile dementia, which is the number of correct questions answered out of 10 such as who is the prime minister, what day is it etc), giving us an idea of how that individual's perceptions of events might be affected. Another typographical device used is that interior monologue is shown in roman type, speech in italics and absence of thought or speech by white space.

The technical device used may sound contrived, but it works marvellously to create a vivid three-dimensional effect. Johnson gives us an insight into the geriatric mind with humour, compassion and empathy. The accounts are by turns, both funny and tragic. A couple of the inmates who are at the extremes of senility are portrayed with great feeling and the use of white space and other typographical techniques augments the writing wonderfully in these sections. The final section, that of the House Mother's, is the only disappointment of the book. Her ostensible "normality" forcing us to reassess the apparent "abnormality" of the inmates' perceptions. However, her revelations seem insignificant compared to the human suffering we have already experienced.

Overall, this is one of those rare examples of a perfect fusion of form and content, and another wonderful piece of work from a great, but neglected writer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a black comedy set in an old people's home, February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy (Paperback)

House Mother Normal tells the story of a night in an old people's home as told by eight of its residents - all with varying degrees of senility - and their perverted carer, the "House Mother" of the title. Each of the nine narratives is synchronised in time and within the text, so that a multi-layered panorama of the evening's events slowly emerges. Johnson was a working-class Londoner who was a disciple of Joyce and Beckett. His novels display a range of experimental devices and tricks and he was in many ways ahead of his time. His books are hard to get hold of, but Picador are about to re-issue "The Unfortunates" his famous "book in a box" (27 loose leaf pamphlets to be read in any order)and Jonathan Coe is writing a biography. He is well worth reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars strange read, June 7, 2007

By 

T. Lai (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy (Paperback)

This was such a strange novel. I like the way Johnson writes out the dialogue or musings of the individuals on one side of the page while writing the atmospheric conversations on the other. I say it was strange because of the ending....but I won't spoil it for you.