Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey [Hardcover]

Dan Rhodes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

Cockroft is a composer and socialite in self-imposed exile. He has a dilapidated home in the Italian countryside and a trickle of royalties from faded glories that allow him one debauched weekend per month in Florence. And, of course, he has the ever-loyal Timoleon Vieta -- a mongrel with the uncanny knack of touching the lives of damaged people and possessor of the most beautiful eyes. During his sorties into the city, Cockroft invariably drinks too much and propositions young men, leaving them his card along with an offer of free accommodation in return for oral sex every Wednesday. When a handsome but surly individual known only as The Bosnian unexpectedly takes the elderly man's offer, Timoleon senses that he is not all that he claims. In a tragicomic work of macabre beauty, written in a style of deceptive simplicity but fierce emotional immediacy, Rhodes amuses and moves in equal measure. Timoleon Vieta Come Home is a novel about love, sex, and death that fulfills the promise of Rhodes hugely acclaimed two collections of short stories.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Carthusians Cockroft, a washed-up composer of British TV jingles, lives in a disintegrating farmhouse in Umbria, his solitude relieved only by a faithful dog, Timoleon Vieta, and a procession of exceptionally fickle boyfriends. Petty and stupid, full of drink and self-pity, Cockroft is a wonderful creation. (He indulges in ludicrously aestheticized fantasies of suicide, such as throwing himself from the top of the Colosseum and "quietly and nakedly falling at the dead of night.") Rhodes never quite succeeds in making this character into a novel. A young hunk, obviously a nasty piece of work, shows up and forces Cockroft to abandon the dog in Rome. The second half of the book, in ironic homage to "Lassie Come-Home," narrates the dog's return by sketching the life stories of those he encounters. Rhodes demonstrates his ability to spin an engaging tale time and again, but to less and less effect with each iteration.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Review

"...[Rhodes'] brief vignettes on emotionally (and often physically) scarred characters are charged with honesty, biting irony and humor." -- Time Out New York, August, 2003

"A whimsical, manacing exploration of thwarted love." -- New York Times, August 31, 2003

"Britain's latest literary darling...Rhodes' effortless prose and quick wit make him a master of the quip and character sketch." -- Publisher's Weekly, June 9, 2003

"Britain's latest literary darling...Rhodes's simple, effortless prose and quick wit make him master of the quip and character sketch." -- Publisher's Weekly, 9 June, 2003

"Rhodes demonstrates his ability to spin an engaging tale time and again." -- New Yorker, September 29, 2003

"Rhodes demonstrates his ability to spin an engaging yarn time and again." -- New Yorker, 28 September, 2003

"Rhodes has made a leap from his clever short fiction to Timoleon Vieta, a whimsical, manacing exploration of thwated love." -- New York Times, 31 August, 2003

"Rhodes manages to serve up an anomalous blend of humor, heartfelt emotion and old-fashioned storytelling verve." -- New York Times, 12 August, 2003

"Timoleon Vieta Come Home is by turns hilarious and heartrending. Rhodes is that real, rare thing - a natural storyteller." -- Sunday Times (London), March 30, 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Canongate U.S.; First American Edition edition (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841954225
• ISBN-13: 978-1841954226
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,985,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read despite the unexpected, July 15, 2005

By 

Frogger "Frogger" (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey (Paperback)

I just finished this book and thought it was one of the best piece of literature I've read in a very long time. Rhodes has the power to interweave stories. He brings characters to life with few words. Like other readers, I had to think a second when I got to the end (at one point, I even looked at the end to make sure I could continue). But despite the deception, it is still a happy ending.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not to be confused with Lassie Come Home, November 2, 2005

By 

Debbie the Book Devourer "dletour7" (Waltham, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey (Paperback)

This will probably be a short review, as I'm going to try hard not to include any spoilers. This book is about a dog who finds himself far from home and tries to get back. And then again, it's not. The dog becomes a device for letting us peek into the lives of the people whose paths he crosses: the old man who owns and loves him, the young woman whose lover cheated on her, the boy whose heart was broken by a gentle girl, even a little girl in Cambodia who sees the dog only in a photo of her sister, and more. The sub-stories are all tragic, yet darkly funny. The overarching story of the pathetic old man, his dog, and the mysterious stranger, known only as The Bosnian, who comes between them is the darkest of all.

Did I mention this book is dark? Well, it is. It's also quite well written and intriguing and, in some places, funny, as only dark stories can be. If you're not afraid of the dark (yes, it's very dark), you should find it a satisfying read.

Other reviewers have guided people to Dan Rhodes' book of 101 short stories (each containing exactly 101 words) called Anthropology as a less-dark example of his incredible talent. I have to agree. I read that book and, although some of the stories there are also tragicomic, at least they're only 101 words long. Seemed less dark to me. So if you are afraid of the dark, read that one. It's like Dan Rhodes with a night light.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Left Me Unmoved Either Way, August 16, 2005

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey (Paperback)

I have to admit I only read this because I was stuck in a corner of Thailand without reading material, and this was the best-looking thing on the shelf where I was staying (alternatives being technothrillers, bodice-rippers, DaVinci Code, and books in languages I cannot read). Having been pretty much unmoved by the novel, it's interesting to see how extreme other people's reactions to it are. Certainly, the publishers have manipulated reader expectations with the jacket design and copy -- I, like many others, started off thinking this was going to be some kind of borderline sickly-sweet "an old expatriate and his dog" quasi-comic jaunt. It's actually something quite different, and if you don't see the ending coming, it does pack a graphic punch, so I can see why some readers reacted so strongly. Still, one has to admit that a book that manages to evoke such extreme outbursts of anger, tears, and delight in so many people (although not me), has done something right....hasn't it?

The first half of the book revolves around the lonely, aging, selfish, homosexual composer Cockroft (an unnecessarily arch name, cock-croft, get it?) who lives alone in rural Italy with his faithful mutt pining for a long-lost love -- the boy in the silver shorts. One day, a surly, good-looking young man turns up, apparently in response to some long-forgotten invitation. Cockroft is delighted to have this strapping mysterious "Bosnian" fixing up the decrepit house and paying the rent with weekly fellatio. This could be taken as a kind of lame satire on the "Under the Tuscan Sun" genre, but mostly it comes across as an improbable setup for something else. Unfortunately, the Bosnian and the titular dog do not like each other one bit, and Cockroft falls into the age-old trap of letting the shiny new thing take precedence over the reliable old thing. Eventually, the Bosnian coerces Cockroft into abandoning the dog, which leads to the second half of the book.

This is a bit of a stylistic problem, because after building up this quirky, claustrophobic, somewhat menacing story, Rhodes abandons it to embark on a series of short stories very loosely linked by the appearance of the abandoned dog making his way back home. Here, we can see the author truly in his element, crafting strong short pieces with a strong sense of place. There's one about a Cambodian girl's hard childhood in a village and the pain of leaving family and friends behind to marry a Westerner. There's a semi-magical one about a deaf-mute Italian girl who fulfills a prophecy by winning the heart of the town hooligan. There's a more conventional one about a Welsh college student who falls for an Italian guy on vacation, chucks it all to move to Italy, and is quickly made aware of the reality of situation. These are all stories about thwarted love and hope for a happier life, and one can see the connection to Cockroft and his long-ago true love.

The stories share a kind of wistful whimsy, and when they dovetail back into the world of Cockroft and the Bosnian at the end, the transition is rather jarring. It's this sudden change in tone that many readers seem to react strongly to, although I personally found it to be kind of clumsy. It does drive home the point that our own weaknesses and selfishness can sometimes lead to great suffering in others, but Rhodes' vehicle for that message, while visceral, seems rather unimaginative. Certainly, the book touches on some deep dark themes, aging, selfishness, sex vs. love, and so forth, but it's too light and breezy to do justice to the weight of these themes. This is perhaps why I found it an ultimately unremarkable and unmoving work of fiction.