Customer Reviews

The Late Hector Kipling: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How often do you come across a book that makes you laugh out loud? David Thewlis has penned such a marvel--a sharp, brilliant story that retains a marvelous sense of wit, along with being dead-on accurate at nailing the inner angst of the artist. Do not miss this one.

The story of an artist whose talents don't extend to the simplest matters of adult, human interaction. This is full of laugh-out-loud send-ups of modern art and the details of Hector's love and family lives may make you cringe with no small measure of recognition. The action is a little repetitive and the ending gets very dark, but Thewlis really knows what he's doing.

There's no question that "The Late Hector Kipling" is a witty, entertaining novel. Thewlis has an engaging style of writing and the various characters are well-drawn. I also enjoyed his take on contemporary art and the contemporary art scene. What I did not enjoy so much was the character of Hector Kipling. At first Hector seems to be a moderately decent guy. He has some dark thoughts, but so do we all. As the book is written in the first person, the reader is definitely given a warts and all view of Hector. I don't see how the book could have been written in any other way and been as effective.
After awhile, though, I was praying for Hector to make even one mature decision. I was starting to find him really tiresome and I lost any ability to relate to him. I enjoy black comedy, but this seemed to be at the dark, extreme edge of black comedy. It was just too dark for my taste. For me, this was probably a 3-star book. I've given it 4-stars because it was very well done; it just veered off into a direction I didn't care for.

The Late Hector Kipling is dark comedy at its best. The book follows Hector, a man with no internal boundries, moral or otherwise, through the London art world. There he finds an environment which gives no external boundries; reward and failure happen seemingly at random. When his usual supports, parents, girlfriend, two best friends become distracted by their own lives, Hector can't cope and his life quicklly unravels. This engaging novel touches on the themes of fame, success and jealousy. Even as the reader follows Hector to his tragic, if well deserved fate, there are moments that make one laugh out loud. A clever, engaging book.

I bought this book on a lark after watching "Naked". I thought that a man who could give such an amazing performance on screen could do the same with a novel. For once, I was dead right! I loved this book! It was like a slow and delightful descent into madness. I felt like I'd gone a little crazy myself after I'd finished it. Or perhaps its just brought to light things in my mind I wouldnt have acknowledged otherwise. As Hector put is "I want that. I want that awful,intense,and serious unhappiness, cos then I might feel better, and then I might be happy." A need to be surrounded by death to really feel alive, and loving the attention one gets when a loved one dies. Not exactly things we'd like people to know about...but something we've thought about from time to time. At least I have. Anyway, I'd highly recommend this book if you think you can handle it.

One prominent print review casts the protagonist of this debut novel from British actor Thewliss as an "appealing" hero. I had to reread that particular line several times, because to my mind, a more accurate description would be "appalling." And it's that difference between appealing and appalling that made this book an ultimately frustrating read for me. I'm not suggesting that a protagonist has to be nice, or likable, or "appealing" to be worth spending 300 pages with -- there are plenty of example of awful, nasty, completely compelling characters who can carry a book along. But the middle-aged painter named Hector Kipling, whose antics this story revolves around, becomes so annoyingly selfish and self-destructive that as his world collapses all around him in the final third of the book, one is hard-pressed to care.

Which isn't to say the book isn't worth trying. For one thing, it's pretty funny -- at least the first half or so. I wouldn't rate it as laugh-out-loud funny as many others seem to, but the wordplay is awfully sharp in that way that seems comes so effortlessly to British writers. At the same time, it's a sharp skewering of the modern art scene, with plenty of name dropping and inside jokes. So if you find the art of installations and video montages to be generally worth mockery, then this may be the book for you.

Another potentially interesting element is how Thewliss takes a standard comedy template (the flawed but likable 25-45 male who makes a few mistakes in the first act and then must spend the rest of the book/film redeeming himself, winning success and the girl by the end) and subverts it. What starts off as another journey down this well-trodden path starts to veer off the map, as Hector's missteps lead him down some very dark roads. Around two-thirds of the way through the book, it seems like the plot has been taken to a place it cannot logically recover from. And yet, we are so used to reading/seeing these kind of stories where the hero turns it all around in in a cunning or lucky reversal of fortunes, that the narrative tension is maintained.

Whether or not you enjoy this is predicated on whether or not you buy into Hector's rapid nervous breakdown and increasingly erratic and selfish behavior. Personally, it all felt way too contrived to me, but I was glad that Thewliss never shied away from the realistic fallout such a breakdown would cause. Worth a sample by those looking for very dark comedy and/or fiction about the artistic process set in the contemporary art world.

David Thewlis may be the best-kept secret in the arts today. Film buffs already know what a gifted actor he is, but with his first novel, The Lake Hector Kipling, he demonstrates an impressive knack for transferring his intellect and warped sense of humor to the printed page.
His protagonist, artist Hector Kipling, seems stable enough at the start. He loves his girlfriend and his parents and produces high-quality, well-received paintings. It's his jealousy for his friends (and fellow artists) that gets him into trouble.
Throughout Hector's alarming journey from success to catastrophe, Thewlis' first-person narrative is not only endlessly inventive but scream-out-loud funny. It's the first novel I can recall that I couldn't read in public without causing a scene. I just couldn't read it quietly. It's true the plot gets a bit Grand Guignol toward the end, but who cares when it's so much fun getting there? (One caveat: this is adult stuff, not for the Harry Potter crowd.)
Those readers who remember Thewlis' breakthrough (and almost entirely improvised) performance in Mike Leigh's Naked will recognize his dark but refreshing voice in Hector's every rant. But one thing is clear: this isn't a book by an actor who decided to write. It a novel by a born writer who also happens to be a gifted actor. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It will open your eyes.

David Thewlis has a way with words. If words were a woman they would fall at his feet in complete surrender! From the first chapter on I was totally captivated by the world of Hector Kipling. At first I was all about Hector. I even understood his resentment of the less talented yet more successful artist Lenny Snook (albeit Lenny was his best friend). He's only human right? I was really pulling for Hector. Even as he began to self-destruct I was pulling for him to get it together. After a while my affection for Hector turned to annoyance. The desire to snatch him up and bitch slap him overcame my desire for him to rally. Though I have read criticism of the ending I felt it was brilliant, and really, for Hector, the only way out. Thewlis' writing has a natural flow that just sweeps you along. The conversations between Hector and friends (and Hector and himself) are hilarious! Do yourself a tremendous favor...READ THIS NOVEL! I enjoyed it so much I have read it twice within a month's time. This book is a treat in which I strongly suggest you indulge!

Hector Kipling is having a hard time lately. The successful artist is not as successful as his best friend Lenny, who is up for a prestigious award; his other friend, Kirk, has a brain tumor; and his father is in the hospital having a reaction to a couch his mother bought upon advice from a voice in her head. But that's not all! His girlfriend is in Crete attending to her mother, who was horribly burned in a grease fire, and the young poet he is having an affair with is into violent sado-masochism. Still, things are about to get even worse for Hector when the man who disfigures his most famous painting at a gallery show starts stalking him and finally promises to kill him. "Is it just me," Hector wonders, "or has my life just turned into some sort of drunken collaboration between Feydeau and Dante?"

Hector is the frazzled and unraveling narrator in THE LATE HECTOR KIPLING, the debut novel of British actor David Thewlis. It is the story of a middle-age crisis but not one for the weak of heart; it's a gritty, messy, manic tale about a man quickly losing his bearings.

It all seems to start with a painting by Edvard Munch. Hector is overcome by emotion he cannot really define and reduced to tears at the Tate Gallery in London after looking at a painting by Munch. Moments later he runs into the sociopath who, in just a short period of time, will provide the catalyst for Hector's final and dramatic "artistic" expression. After his mini-breakdown, the bad news comes fast and furious for Hector. His anger and frustration grow, and he spends more and more time drunk and avoiding the people he should be with. He becomes obsessed with death (not his, but the deaths of those around him) because it is through death, he surmises, that one knows life. Basically, Hector is losing his mind and eventually is running around London, bloody and mostly naked, stalking the man who is stalking him and finding himself dealing with the stranger's murderous intents by entertaining murderous thoughts of his own.

While Thewlis's book starts out as a typically dark-humored English story (Hector is a charming, grumpy and eccentric artist, dedicated to his family and friends, and really facing mortality for the time in his 45 years), it turns even darker as it goes on. Violence and irrationality escalate to the point of absurdity. Hector's behavior and motivation often make little sense. But, the point is, Hector is a man who has lost his sense, and Thewlis has allowed us front-row seats of the ensuing disaster. The novel either strayed from its original course as it was written, or Thewlis followed his artistic instincts to their logical conclusion given full reign to Hector's increasing madness. Either way, it takes a dangerous turn halfway through. Hector starts off as a likable enough guy but soon becomes captive to his jealousies and the idea that death would bring him attention.

Thewlis's writing is natural and witty; Hector's parents are especially well-conceived. The world of contemporary art that the author depicts is fickle and confusing, full of hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies but also full of passion and meaning. Although not without its problems (a too-sharp plot turn, for example), THE LATE HECTOR KIPLING is an interesting and wickedly fun debut.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

I don't usually write reviews, and even though I feel compelled to write one now I have half-decided against it. Which is why I won't mince my words, and will just say that this is an amazingly well written book. Read it.