The Possession of Mr Cave
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Product Description
Review
"A Dark compelling read"
--The Times
--The Times
Book Description
A dark, disturbing novel about a man who loves his child too much.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you.,
By
This review is from: The Possession of Mr Cave (Hardcover)
I must admit that I struggled to decide on how many stars to give this book. As usual for Matt Haig's books it is brilliantly written and the story is unsual, clever and keeps you hooked until the end, BUT, I found this a very uncomfortable read.
It is the story of a mild mannered antique shop owner and his journey into madness. It makes King Lear look like a harmless train spotter. His wife is murdered in a bungled robbery and years later his son dies in an accident trying to impress the group of lads he hung out with. This just left Mr Cave with the boys twin sister. And that is where the nightmare begins. It is a horror story but not in the Stephen King/Mark Morris squashed eyeball or exploding head type. This is a "there but by the grace of God go I" type of story. The possession comes in 2 forms, he wants to possess his daughter, controlling her life to such an extent that he destroys what he loves the most and the other possession is the root of his madness as he thinks he is possessed by the spirit of his dead son. The story cleverly builds up the tension so that by the end you are drawn into Mr Cave's mad mind and you see how far he has really gone to exact revenge on a seemingly evil world and protect his daughter. Very dark and perhaps even gothic, if you beleive the dust jacket, but like all of Matt Haig's books well worth the read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW!,
By Spencer Newman (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Possession of Mr Cave (Paperback)
I can completely understand the other reviewer when he mentions this being an uncomfortable read and not sure what rating to give it, but I have decided to go for a five.
It can be uncomfortable at times, but it should be. A subject like this shouldn't be easy. However, although it is very dark, Matt Haig has made parts witty, although, the story being so dark, there were probably times that I missed some of the wit. It is amazingly addictive and I just found myself wanted to continue reading just a bit more before I turned the lights out. I felt for Mr Cave and his daughter and can understand the fears he had for her. As must every father of a young daughter. Matt Haig, even in his young age seems to have captured the mind of a middle-aged father (that is losing his mind) and that of a teenage girl brilliantly. The characters really came alive for me and I was only disappointed that the book had to come to an end. I have read Matt Haig's first novel Last Family in England and loved that too, so I can't wait to read his other books now. I can't believe I didn't see this book in all the bookshop windows. This is not a book to be missed.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"You're not a father. You're a dictator. You're a weird, creepy fascist.",
By
This review is from: The Possession of Mr. Cave (Hardcover)
In this intimate tale a cultured man is crippled by an inability to find or express intimate his love for his daughter. Written as a heartbreaking confessional, author Matt Haig sets the stage for a showdown between a father and a daughter. Compressed, understated, and in the face of intense feeling, the author places the sensitive, isolated and broken down Terence Cave at odds with his spirited teenage daughter Bryony where access to her profoundest emotions and his capacity to articulate his own emotions come forth in a mélange of suspicion, paranoia and murder. This story begins with a devastating tragedy. One night Terence's son, Reuben, dies losing his grip when he falls from a lamppost. While his body lies cold on the pavement, a group of boys stood around watching him die, one of which is Denny, the budding boyfriend of Bryony.
Terrence's life changes virtually overnight, and now he must come to terms with his the loss of yet another loved one. Two devastating tragedies have already taken the life of both his wife and his mother. Reuben was never going to be the high achiever in an academic sense, but his death forces Terence to renegotiate his relationship with Bryony. An owner of a successful antique business, Terence has spent much of his life mending broken things, perhaps in the hope that he can obtain the power of defeating time and of insulating himself. With Bryony, the only one remaining out of all four people he loved, Terence - desperate to keep his daughter close and keep her safe - assumes the role of the guardian angel, trying his best to ward off the corruptive forces of the night. Denny, however is unrelenting in his pursuit of the teenage girl, Bryony gradually succumbing to the boy's affection, drawn along by his rough-and-tumble working class charisma. Only Cynthia, Bryony's grandmother appears to be the voice of empathy as she frantically tries to assuage Terence as his anger shifts slowly into despair. While Cynthia tells him to "pull his socks up, he has his daughter to feed," a trip to Rome does little to mitigate Bryony's simmering resentment against her father. Culminating in a vivid struggle of wills both father and daughter are set on assured path of destruction. Soon enough he begins spying while she's on the phone with her best friend Imogen who tells her of the sly meetings with Denny. Terence just can't help himself as he follows her into the seedy underbelly of York where Bryony - often drunk and rebellious - seems ever more content to lie about where she goes. Accompanied by a darkening sense of vision and the black flies, the ghost of Reuben constantly whispers in his ear: "Look dad, I'm getting stronger." In this bleak portrayal of a family on the edge, the author creates a multi-dimensional protagonist beset with anger and hurt as "Terence the Tormented Tormentor" plunges into his designated role, his mind and sense of reality fracturing as he becomes desperate to lay down a set of rules for his daughter abide by at whatever cost. In a story where the desire to protect is the desire to possess and where the desire to love is the desire to destroy, Terence's fatal flaw is his very own nature as he gradually becomes blinded by his thousands of prejudices. Somewhat a middle-class snob and with a soul that eventually loses strength and weakens, it is this man's clenched grip on the past that slowly unravels. When this embattled and embittered hero makes his final stand, he cannot help but be possessed and tormented by his own guilt and culpability in the death of his son and the failed relationship with his daughter. Mike Leonard May 09.
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