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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Comedy and Political Satire,
By
This review is from: Murder in Mount Holly (Hardcover)
Publication of this "new" novel by Paul Theroux will certainly catch the eye of longtime fans of the man's work, but this time there is both good and bad news for fans to consider. The good news is that Theroux's Murder in Mount Holly is, indeed, a "new" novel to most American readers because it has never before been published in this country; the bad news is that the novel is actually forty-two years old and most definitely shows its age. The American version of this short novel first published in the U.K. in 1969 - and republished there in 1998 as part of a Theroux collection - is finally being released. Murder in Mount Holly is a dark comedy set during the turbulent years of American history during which the generations were largely split by angry debate over the rightness or wrongness of the Vietnam War. Theroux uses an assortment of characters thrown together by chance to illustrate how this unpopular war affected Americans of all ages and political beliefs. The over-the-top approach to storytelling he uses here, despite not always working well for Theroux, does make this short novel a hard one to forget. College student Herbie Gneiss, at the insistence of his recently widowed mother, decides to leave school so that he can financially support her huge grocery consumption pace (this is one very large woman). This will prove to be an exceptionally poor decision when young Herbie is drafted just weeks after finding work at the Kant-Brake company, a firm that produces detailed and realistic war toys for America's children. Rather unfortunately for his mother, as it will turn out, Herbie has already introduced her to the new love of her life, Mr. Gibbon, an older man he met at his boarding house. When Herbie leaves for basic training, his mother moves into that boarding house to be near Mr. Gibbon- and the trouble begins. The rest of this short novel involves the planning and execution of a farcical bank robbery by Mr. Gibbon, Herbie's mother, and their landlady, Mrs. Ball. Despite the ensuing violence and tragedy that follows, the cartoonish nature of Theroux's approach to the story makes it difficult, if not impossible, for his anti-Vietnam-War message to make much of an impact on the reader. Murder in Mount Holly is not Paul Theroux's finest effort - far from it, in fact. It will, however, interest the type of reader that feels compelled to read every page written by a favorite author, if simply to understand better that author's progression from mediocrity to excellence over the years.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Early Theroux: an offbeat comedy,
By
This review is from: Murder in Mount Holly (Hardcover)
Originally published in Great Britain in 1969, Murder in Mount Holly is one of Paul Theroux's early novels. A prologue introduces its three main characters: Herbie Gneiss, having unwillingly dropped out of college, must even less willingly find a job so he can support his gluttonous mother after his father's death. Mr. Gibbon is an aging veteran who walks around town carrying wrinkled paper bags when he's not working in a war toy factory. Miss Ball, a kindergarten teacher who collects products with catchy names, rents rooms in her house to Herbie and Gibbon so she'll have extra money for the school janitor, with whom she's having an affair."If you don't laugh, you'll go crazy," says Herbie. Murder in Mount Holly offers ample opportunity to increase your daily laughter quotient. Theroux's characters have ridiculous conversations, filled with non sequiturs and nonsense, and yet they all seem real, like recordings of conversations your near-deaf and slightly dotty grandparents might have with each other. The older characters -- Gibbon, Ball, and Herbie's mother -- are barely in touch with reality, living their lives in a past that never existed. They are racially and religiously intolerant, wedded to political views that make Barry Goldwater seem like a pacifist. To prove that they "still have a lot of spunk left," they turn to crime, somehow justifying their scheme as a blow against communism. It's no surprise that things go wrong from the very start. Meanwhile, Herbie gets his draft notice. The old folks are delighted; whether he comes home is less important than their familiarity with someone who has been called to battle the communist menace. If the story seems a bit dated, if Theroux's targets seem too obvious, if the novel is less substantial than Theroux's later work, the humor that inheres in his eccentric characters and absurd dialog endures, in the way that early Woody Allen comedies will always be funny. I recommend Murder in Mount Holly to fans of offbeat comedy for that reason.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fans are sure to enjoy the read,
By Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Murder in Mount Holly (Hardcover)
"Comfy Room for Peanuts. Large homey room, warm, for single male, hooked rug, big quilt, just perfect for student who wants all the comforts and doesn't mind sharing the 'boy's room.' Kitchen priv., tender loving care. Can't miss. Cheap. Nice. Call after 6. Tel. 65355."Thus read Miss Ball's advertisement in the Mount Holly Chickadee. She is a sweet woman who teaches kindergarten, fancies herself a starlet (though an aging one) and is having an affair with Juan, the school janitor. It was a similar ad that appealed to Mr. Gibbon and led him to rent one of her rooms, and now it has hooked Herbie Gneiss, even though he didn't know which "boy's room" he would have to share. Herbie has been forced to drop out of college to care for his mother. She wrote and told him that she needed him because she was dying. Yet when he arrived home, she looked perfectly healthy, though a bit overweight --- possibly from shoveling potato chips dipped in ice cream into her mouth and eating boxes of chocolates with abandon. Herbie remarked, "You said you were dying in the letter." She responds, "Of course I'm dying. What do you expect? You think I'm going to live forever?" He's not too happy about the situation but agrees to get a job and make the best of it. The fun begins when Herbie is drafted, his mother and Mr. Gibbon fall in love, and the three elderlies decide to fulfill their patriotic duty by robbing the Mount Holly Trust Company, which they are convinced is a Communist Front organization. What further proof do they need? It's clearly run by You-Know-Whos. A comedy of errors follows. Paul Theroux is a renowned travel and fiction writer who began his career after a stint in the Peace Corps. MURDER IN MOUNT HOLLY was originally published in the UK in 1969 and is now being released in the US for the first time. Perhaps his most well-known novel is THE MOSQUITO COAST, which was made into a full-length movie starring Harrison Ford. Theroux's sense of humor is demonstrated not only in the wacky robbery caper but also in his unique characters. For example, "Mr. Gibbon was a fuddy-duddy, not a geezer, but he was old, chewed his lips, dressed horribly and so often was taken for a geezer." And he would be severely reprimanded, if not arrested for his politically incorrect epithets when talking about people's ethnicity, race and sexual persuasion. But he is a veteran of three wars and fought for the right to say anything he pleases. While MURDER IN MOUNT HOLLY is in the "mystery" genre, I would place it more in the comedy/fiction category. Christopher Moore and Tony Robbins come to mind. It's kind of like watching "All in the Family" when all of a sudden Edith comes home with a suitcase full of body parts. It can be a stretch. Fans are sure to enjoy both the read and the stretch. Reviewed by Maggie Harding
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