Emily sent me a copy of the novel The Dead Fathers Club
It’s so good!! I love so-called Young Adult novels anyway – it’s my favorite genre (if they’re well-written).
This book is written from the perspective of an 11 year old British boy named Philip. Philip’s father just died in a car crash, and the book opens with Philip seeing his Dad’s Ghost at the funeral. The Dad, unlike other book-ghosts, is not benevolent, loving, nostalgic. No. He is sad, tormented, and needs his son to know that the car accident was actually NOT an accident. And he needs his son to take revenge. His 11 year old boy. There’s a Hamlet-ish feel to all of this … and I have no idea what is going to happen – but I already can’t put it down. Naturally, Philip’s school starts to get worried about him – because he sometimes is seen talking to nobody (he’s actually talking to his Dad’s Ghost) – and he’s put into counseling – and he’s furious at his uncle who appears to already be making the moves on his mother …
Here’s an excerpt. I am just in love with the voice of this book. It’s perfect. Philip and his class go on a field trip, a sleep-over field trip … and Philip’s Dad’s Ghost follows along. The shit has already started to hit the fan. Philip threw his dinner across the room because he was in such a rage at the encroachment of his uncle. And now the whole school knows about it, and how he broke a window … and all the kids start teasing him, etc.
I love when he chooses to use all-caps. It’s awesome. Like “POT” below.
Excerpt from The Dead Fathers Club, by Matt Haig
Mr. Rosen is a nice Teacher with hairy hands and a good watch but he is strict. He sometimes shouts an dgets a big neck like the Incredible Hulk but his neck goes red and a bit blue but not green and when he shouts little bits of spit jump out of his mouth like they are scared of his voice.
But he was being very nice to me and saying There is no shame in walking in your sleep Philip.
He told me about when he was my age and he walked in his sleep into his sisters bedroom and picked up a book and waited by her bed. He said I was dreaming I was in a library.
I laughed but I knew really it wasn’t as bad as smashing a window and I think he knew as well.
And then Mr Rosen went quiet and I looked out of the window and there were drops of rain on the glass like little worlds and outside there was grass and rocks and sheep and it was all hills and I wondered if Dads Ghost was here he would be able to see all the ghosts of murdered Romans. And I wondered if Emperor Hadrian was murdered and if he ever comes back to see what is left of the wall and if he gets sad when he sees just lumps of stone in the ground with grass growing over them and a few people walking with maps and looking at them and wanting to go home.
We went to a place with other Roman buildings and they were built in 130 AD which was eight years after when they started building Hadrians Wall which was 122 AD.
We had plans of the buildings and there were kitchens and toilets and bedrooms but you couldnt tell that from the stones in the ground only from the plans. And Mrs Fell and Mr Rosen were talking all about it but I wasn’t really listening I was feeling weird like my body was just air and nothing was real and my heart wasn’t beating like normal. It wasn’t going beatbeat beat-beat beatbeat it was going beat beatbeat beat beatbeatbeat for a little bit which made me think I was going to die but then it stopped doing it so I didn’t tell anyone.
At the meal there was black beefburgers which were thin and chewy like shoes and more mashed potatoes from the big POT.
And then there was a disco which was really just Mrs Fells CD player she had brought from home. She played some music and it was Beyonce and all the girls danced but none of the boys danced except where there was rapping. And Mr Rosen danced like Dad used to which was like a bird which couldnt fly but Mrs Fell could dance well and she was wearing Make Up and green round her eyes which sounds weird but it was nice. I must have been looking a long time because she saw me looking and she waved her arms for me to come and dance and she was dancing with Charlotte Ward and a circle of girls and Mr Rosen so I didnt want to come. But Mrs Fell never stops so she came over and took my hand and pulled me up to dance and Jordan was giggling at me and the giggle spread out like fire to Dominic and even Siraj who used to be my friend before Dad died.
Mrs Fell said Come on Philip. Come and dance.
I said I I I
Mrs Fell said Come on.
And then all the boys were laughing but Mrs Fell couldn’t hear and she took me to the circle of girls dancing and my heart started going funny again. I danced but I didnt want to because it was a girl song about boys and all the boys were staring and nudging and my face was burning HOT.
Mrs Fell was only being nice because she thought I was on my own but sometimes being nice is as bad as being horrible. And so I danced without moving very much just my arms a little bit and it was bad and I just kept seeing the faces of everyone and Mr Rosen was flapping his wings and smiling at me and I wished he was cross with me and didnt give me special treatment.
Mr Rosen said All right Philip?
I said Yes.
And after 100 minutes the song ended and I sat down near the boys but not with them. A song came on which I used to like before Dad died and it sounded horrible and stupid now like robots. And when it was on Dominic and Jamie Western and Jordan did a press up competition and Dominic won.
I looked at Mrs Fell and I think I had upset her because she was dancing the same but not smiling now and I felt bad for upsetting her.
“…little bits of spit jump out of his mouth like they are scared of his voice.”
I still HOWL at that line. Like, this is a little kid dealing with this massive tragedy, but he still has this weird sense of his surroundings that’s probably incredibly funny to everyone but him. There’s a part in one of the first chapters, where he was watching the news report of the crash that killed his father. It had some gruesome picture of his car dangling off a bridge, with a report on how long the bridge was going to be closed with options for alternative routes for people in the local area.
“As if that was the important thing.”
That ripped my heart out of my chest. It’s so sad, but to everyone but Philip and his family, that IS the important thing. Even for all of his precocious observations, he’s still living in this kind of limited child-view of the world. And it’s wonderfully endearing. It really is a very great, clever book. I bought one for Dave J, as well. I don’t know if he’s read it yet, but I want to hear what he thinks, too. I told him “imagine if Hamlet had been written by an 11-year-old boy…”
Oh – that bridge line killed me.
There are a lot of lines like that – where you can feel how upset and shattered this boy is – yet he’s still 11 years old.
The whole chapter with the two twins (Gary and Ross) talking about whether or not girls fart made me laugh out loud.
I just LOVE this guy’s writing. Can’t put it down.
I also have no idea where the book is going … as of now, Philip has a girlfriend (with the Jesus freak dad, hysterical) – and he’s trying to figure out a way to kill his uncle.
Hahaha…the girls farting thing. I know what you mean about not putting it down. And it’s kind of hard to justify, since it’s a pretty quick read. I’m so glad you’re enjoying it. I had to share with someone. I HAD to talk about it. I think it’s really hard to re-capture the voice of a child as an adult. Very few people can do it well. This guy Haig really did.
Emily – yes, it is so hard to do! Like to get the combination of naivete and also wisdom that kids have. The resilience but also the deep hurt they can feel … and also the observations. God! Like his observations about Hadrians Wall, and Kipling – and the stuff he’s learning in school … the child’s interpretation of that stuff.
So far I love his girlfriend and I LOVE his girlfriend’s cool older brother, smoking and being all James Dean-y, and rebelling against Jesus Freak Dad.
I love that dad – I mean, I am glad I don’t know him personally – but he’s such a funny character. Like when he starts babbling to Philip during their first conversation asking Philip if he knows “the good shepherd” – of course talking about Jesus, but Philip has no idea what the fuck the dude is talking about.
What? Shepherd? Do I know … who? WHAT shepherd???
The older brother thing was so perfect because Philip is at that age where he’s kind of yearning to be cool like the bigger boys, where he’s anxious to kind of grow up to be more like them…things like that, those kinds of attitudes are easy to forget as an adult. I don’t know if it’s because we’re afraid to revisit that fear and general sense of being so unsure about everything or if most of us just forget because we survived it and the rent, groceries and the rest of life take up too much of our time. That’s why books like this are so terrific. We could all use the reminder from time to time.
And the whole shepherd thing had me in stitches. I remember being about Philip’s age, maybe a year younger, and one of my friends from school had one of those Weird Creepy Jesus Moms. She came up to me one day at some school event and told me how important it was for me to “find Jesus.” I kind of reflexively kind of looked side to side, checking my pockets and thinking “I wasn’t aware I’d lost him in the first place.” It’s great how kids can kind of pick up on that weirdness. They don’t have nice enough manners yet to be polite, so they’re just kind of like “What in the HELL are you talking about?”
Yeah, and how about saying “Hi, nice to meet you” before launching into the Good Shepherd monologue.
And I despise Uncle Alan. I know I’m supposed to … but what a slime-ball!!