{"id":6125,"date":"2007-03-18T14:50:23","date_gmt":"2007-03-18T18:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6125"},"modified":"2015-05-30T10:35:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-30T14:35:10","slug":"the-dead-fathers-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6125","title":{"rendered":"<i>The Dead Fathers Club<\/i>, by Matt Haig"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ac&#038;ref=tf_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=thesheivari-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=0143112945&#038;asins=0143112945&#038;linkId=7NS52YXXW7MP3XLA&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nEmily sent me a copy of the novel <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0143112945\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0143112945&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=thesheivari-20&#038;linkId=JNIYAWO2ZLALNM3W\">The Dead Fathers Club<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=thesheivari-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0143112945\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/><\/i>, by Matt Haig.  I started it yesterday and am already a quarter of the way through.  I dare anyone to pick up this book, read the first chapter, and then put the book down without finding out what happens.  NOT POSSIBLE.  Or if you do put the book down, there is something seriously wrong with you.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s so good!!  I love so-called Young Adult novels anyway &#8211; it&#8217;s my favorite genre (if they&#8217;re well-written).<\/p>\n<p>This book is written from the perspective of an 11 year old British boy named Philip.  Philip&#8217;s father just died in a car crash, and the book opens with Philip seeing his Dad&#8217;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&#8217;s a Hamlet-ish feel to all of this &#8230; and I have no idea what is going to happen &#8211; but I already can&#8217;t put it down.  Naturally, Philip&#8217;s school starts to get worried about him &#8211; because he sometimes is seen talking to nobody (he&#8217;s actually talking to his Dad&#8217;s Ghost) &#8211; and he&#8217;s put into counseling &#8211; and he&#8217;s furious at his uncle who appears to already be making the moves on his mother &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an excerpt.  I am just in love with the voice of this book.  It&#8217;s perfect.  Philip and his class go on a field trip, a sleep-over field trip &#8230; and Philip&#8217;s Dad&#8217;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 &#8230; and all the kids start teasing him, etc.<\/p>\n<p>I love when he chooses to use all-caps.  It&#8217;s awesome.  Like &#8220;POT&#8221; below.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<b>Excerpt from  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Dead-Fathers-Club-Matt-Haig\/dp\/0670038334\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1\/002-3125325-8036004?ie=UTF8&#038;s=books&#038;qid=1174242681&#038;sr=8-1\"><i>The Dead Fathers Club<\/i><\/a>, by Matt Haig<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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.<\/p>\n<p>But he was being very nice to me and saying There is no shame in walking in your sleep Philip.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>I laughed but I knew really it wasn&#8217;t as bad as smashing a window and I think he knew as well.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;t really listening I was feeling weird like my body was just air and nothing was real and my heart wasn&#8217;t beating like normal.  It wasn&#8217;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&#8217;t tell anyone.<\/p>\n<p>At the meal there was black beefburgers which were thin and chewy like shoes and more mashed potatoes from the big POT.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Fell said Come on Philip.  Come and dance.<\/p>\n<p>I said I I I<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Fell said Come on.<\/p>\n<p>And then all the boys were laughing but Mrs Fell couldn&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Rosen said All right Philip?<\/p>\n<p>I said Yes.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\n<iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ac&#038;ref=tf_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=thesheivari-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=0143112945&#038;asins=0143112945&#038;linkId=7NS52YXXW7MP3XLA&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emily sent me a copy of the novel The Dead Fathers Club, by Matt Haig. I started it yesterday and am already a quarter of the way through. I dare anyone to pick up this book, read the first chapter, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6125\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6125"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103240,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions\/103240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}