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Review
‘Flusfeder is a genuinely original writer with a fine ear and fluent style. His previous novel, “The Gift”, raised expectations of a flowering talent; this does not disappoint.’ The Mail on Sunday
‘Quite a book…’The Pagan House’ is the kind of book that, as it eschews authorial stridency, plays down its finest passages of prose and tells its best jokes in an undertone, risks not being recognised as the small masterpiece that it is. After reading it, though, you won’t want it any other way.’ Daily Telegraph
‘Flusfeder employs thriller-like pace to his narrative. The prose is terse yet commanding…Where Flusfeder excels is the timing and tying individual threads of disparate beings into an inevitable finale.’ Sunday Business Post
‘[A] madly brilliant, hilarious and tender portrait of adolescent angst.’ Daily Mail
‘“The Pagan House” is a sophisticated coming-of-age narrative with, appropriate to any shucking away of childish things, a darkening tone ushered in by the double-twist in Flusfeder’s denouement.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘David Flusfeder is a deliciously talented writer…”The Pagan House” is terrific fun…the early sections, which represent a picture of hormone-adolescence [are] up there with Martin Amis’s The Rachel Papers and Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth.’ New Statesman
‘Some wonderful moments.’ Patrick Ness, Guardian
Praise for ‘The Gift’:
'”The Gift” starts as a comedy of manners and turns into a deep and surreal exposition of the cruelty of generosity…The perfect present for your successful friends.' Louisa Young, Sunday Times
'Few novels excite us enough to make us want to retell them to anyone willing to listen. “The Gift “is such a novel. With gentle literary grace and great authority, Flusfeder spins reality into a dream and back again.' Elena Lappin, Guardian
'A black comedy of rare originality…thoughtful, amusing, wry…it has the makings of a cult classic. Read it and read it again.' Simon Humphreys, Mail on Sunday
'This fever dream of masculine anxiety and the bad manners of affluence resolves into something unexpectedly wise and generous: a complete story and a very good one.' Jonathan Franzen
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Customer Reviews
The spurious connection of having Edgar as an ancestor is a contrived device and left me bewilderd as to its relevance. The repetitive coming of age activities of a young boy who has reached puberty and his pizza eating experiences all made for a rather long winded and dreary read with little of the "brilliant blend" so descibed on the back cover. Detective Mystery Booklovers will definitely want to leave this book on the shelf.
When Edgar flies to the States to stay with Fay, his paternal grandmother, and celebrate his birthday with his unreliable father, he is thrust into the adult world of scheming, arguments and neglect, which he observes from the childhood side of the unbridgeable gulf. His father is so wrapped up in himself and his gambling that he forgets Edgar's birthday, and the boy's evasive phone conversations with his mother, concealing this hurtful fact, are full of poignancy. But it's the suspected sinister intent of control-freak Warren, Fay's personal care assistant, that comes to occupy Edgar's attention, and shows his father (and uncle) in an even less attractive light. The growing sense of intrigue is nicely done.
(WARNING: Mild spoiler in next paragraph)
In the final section of the book, Edgar returns to the States ten years later, somewhat worse for wear, and wanting to confront Warren with the crimes that he suspects him of. But he's forced to acknowledge an alternative explanation that provides both him and the reader with a fascinating moral conundrum to think about. And the last few pages offer a neat little twist that, for me at least, acted as a nice foil to the sadness of Edgar's drift through early adulthood.
Interlaced within this story is an account of the free-love Christian sect that his ancestors created, and which the jacket blurb claims will shed light on Edgar's life, but I found it a little heavy-going and superfluous. However, it's only a small portion of the book, and others may well find it illuminating.
There's a lot to be admired in this novel. Edgar is a brilliantly realized and convincing character, and his desperate urges, sexual or otherwise, provide some moments of great comedy, in particular the scene on the plane to New York at the start of the book, which had me in hysterics. There are some lovely observations of his not-yet-adult status, and if, like me, you were weedy and uncool as a kid, many of them will strike a chord. (The descriptions of his reluctant participation in football matches are very funny.) But the main thing I shall take away from this excellent book is a sense of sadness about Middle Life, where, cushioned between the hedonistic freedom of youth and the gentle wisdom of old age, many of us play out selfish lives, burdened by responsibility and the need to survive, and act appallingly in the process. A thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining book.
The spurious connection of having Edgar as an ancestor is a contrived device and left me bewilderd as to its relevance. The repetitive coming of age activities of a young boy who has reached puberty and his pizza eating experiences all made for a rather long winded and dreary read with little of the "brilliant blend" so descibed on the back cover. Detective Mystery Booklovers will definitely want to leave this book on the shelf.
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