The Dead Fathers Club

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Les didnt look happy but Les never looks happy and that is why Dad always called him Les Miserable. And when I was looking at them Big Vic looked at me and normally when he looked at me he smiled or said something funny like Oi Philip its your round. But that day he looked away as soon as his eyes touched my eyes as if looking at my eyes could be dangerous or make him ill or as if my eyes had lasers in them that cut him in half. I moved my eyes and watched Mum and Uncle Alan and I wanted Uncle Alans hands to stop holding Mums hands and they did stop when Renuka went and talked to Mum. Renuka is Mums best friend who goes to Step class with her on Mondays and Thursdays where they step on boxes for an hour to make their bums smaller. Renuka had been with Mum lots this week and she had made 700 cups of tea and Uncle Alan looked cross now because when Renuka talks no one can fit words in because she doesnt have any spaces. I kept looking round the bar and Nan kept talking to me and that is when I saw him. That is when I saw Dads Ghost. Q. In The Dead Fathers Club you write from an adolescent’s perspective. Why does this age group hold such a fascination for authors? Gender isn’t too much of a problem. But youth is, especially for a male. A woman can imitate a young voice fairly easily, but few men can regress to a time before their voices changed.

The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig | Goodreads

I could see Dads Ghost looking at him and he was looking at him in a way I hadnever seen him look at anyone before especially not his brother and I knew hedidnt like him being in the office. So I said Ill go out in a minute Im justlooking for something.

Enlivening this remarkable novel from start to finish is the narrative voice of Philip himself. Lonely, misunderstood, but thoughtful beyond his years, Philip struggles to express his complex fears of both life and death in the journal that his school counselor encourages him to keep. As Matt Haig leads us to question the motives of Philip’s family and friends, as well as the true nature of Philip’s father’s ghost, he gradually evolves a brilliant contradictory portrait of his central character. Is he precociously philosophical or pathetically mad? Is he a foolish boy, or a fount of strange forbidden wisdom? Must he follow Hamlet’s destiny to the bitter end, or will he summon the courage to regain control of his fate? Not until the shattering conclusion do the deep mysteries of the story become clear. Hamlet parallels -- complete with similar plot twists -- are worked in so deftly that the reader never quite anticipates where the book will go next. Readers see the world, surprising and strange, through Philip's eyes. It's a tangled web of murder and lies, with a boy caught in the middle, trying to make sense of it all. The result is a confused yet perceptive narrator whose responses to the world he inhabits are darkly humorous and sometimes tragic. Funny, tragic (and very British), Matt Haig has written a delightful and poignant novel, told in the voice of an 11 year old boy who is trying to process the death of his father as he also endeavors to grow up. Full of surprising and intricate language as well as fascinating plot twists, this is a story for all types of readers. Karen Frank, Northshire Bookstore Vermont

Reviews of The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig - BookBrowse

Haig’s update of Hamlet is clever, and Philip’s narration nicely captures a studied, Haddonesque naïveté. Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly The problem was, how do you find someone? Acting prodigies aside, how do you find a kid who can deliver a 7-hour narration of a book based on a Shakespearean play? And, oh yes, Ruben is American and the boy had to be British.My intention was to write a story that connects with people emotionally and hopefully that connection works the same with or without an in-depth knowledge of Hamlet. After all, Shakespeare himself was the king of rewrites, and Hamlet itself echoes earlier vengeance stories. I’m not a natural fan of authors who refuse to use apostrophes but Matt Haig’s Hamlet-esque Dead Fathers Club, narrated by an 11-year-old, somehow gains piquancy from it. This is the story of Philip, whose late dad appears as a ghost and tells the boy that he was murdered by Uncle Alan. Philip must now avenge him by killing Uncle Alan. And he has to do it before his father’s birthday in a few weeks, otherwise Dad’s ghost will be condemned to haunt the pub car park forever. Phil Hogan, The Observer Many of Haig’s characters, including Uncle Alan (Claudius), Philip’s mother (Gertrude), Leah (Ophelia), and Ross and Gary (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) have clear parallels in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Nevertheless, these characters have been re-imagined with traits and motivations that distinguish them from their Shakespearean models. Choose a character from The Dead Fathers Club and reread the scenes involving that character’s counterpart in Hamlet. How has Haig altered the character? What do you think of these changes? And he smiled but in a sad way and he said Yes like a light bulb. It is hard tocontrol where I go but I am getting better.

The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig - Reading Guide The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig - Reading Guide

The Dead Fathers Club is a 2006 novel by Matt Haig. The book was published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape and in the United States by Viking Press. The story is a retelling of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and thus an example of intertextuality. Phillip is taken to the hospital where he discovers a news article that suggests that his father's ghost was lying. Phillip's father is still visible and still attempts to persuade Phillip to murder Alan, who chooses not to listen to his father. Alan eventually dies due to injuries sustained from Phillip's rescue, but it is left unclear as to whether Brian's ghost was saved from the terrors or was simply a figment of Phillip’s imagination. Mrs. Fell– The teacher and counselor of Phillip, Mrs. Fell is a lovely woman who offers comfort to Phillip. Ray Goodwin, is in the Dead Father’s Club; it is unclear whether or not Mrs. Fell knows this.This is a very impressive novel; it’s being published as mainstream (and the Hamlet parallels throw it solidly into the literary-novel category rather than genre fantasy), but anyone with a passing familiarity with the plot of Hamlet could read it with great appreciation. Whatever you call it, it will be one of the major fantasy novels of 2007; it’s that good. Andrew Wheeler, senior editor at the Science Fiction Book Club You are meant to be frightened when you see a ghost but I was not frightened because it felt completely normal which is weird because I had never seen a ghost before. He was just standingthere behind the smoke of Big Vics cigar and he was looking at me and notscared of my eyes like everyone else was. This is an amazing and imaginative update of Hamlet . . . Haig does a fabulous job of exploring the psyche of an eleven-year-old boy. He takes serious situations and makes them come across with humor and a full range of other emotions. The Dead Fathers Club is a refreshing and modern tale of grief and revenge – and also a definite must-read. Curled Up.com