The Dead Fathers Club: Matt Haig

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Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories.”―NEIL GAIMAN Haig does an excellent job of evoking his troubled, fumbling protagonist, and his second novel manages to be both darkly comic and a painful, touching account of bereavement. James Stuart, The Guardian So begins Philip's quest to avenge his dad and to save his mom from the greasy clutches of Uncle Alan, who seems intent on taking his dad's place in their lives. But Philip finds himself both uneasy with his mission and distrustful of the ghost that claims to be his father. Plus, he's distracted by Leah Polonius, the gorgeous daughter of Uncle Alan's Bible-thumping business partner. What's a young lad to do?

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 reimagined 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? For a character who engages in as much internal monologuing as Philip, there’s initially very little ambivalence over his mission. There’s no moralizing about whether it’s right to take Alan’s life, but maybe that makes sense. Life is simpler at 11: Philip loved his father, his father’s ghost says Alan must die, and so Alan must die. The problem, though, is that his father’s ghost – who at first appears to be omniscient and gifted with preternatural awareness – makes an increasing number of inaccurate predictions, some of which have disastrous consequences. And this brings Philip to a crossroads: Is his father an tortured spirit or just a spiteful douchebag? And if it’s the latter, is his death still worth avenging? Plot in a nutshell: This is a British hip-hop retelling of Hamlet, an effort you may not have realized you needed until you see it. Author reminds me of: Dave Eggers. Best reason to read: If he weren’t so literary, Haig could have a future in the gothic world. His scenes with Dads Ghost are genuinely frightening — and they’re interspersed with funny and poignant insights of adolescent love and loss.

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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. My only minor niggle was that there were parts where I felt the boy's voice was a little 'young' for Year 7 (this is probably the ex-secondary school teacher in me, remembering what they're like at that age). However, this only jarred very slightly on occasion, and didn't bother me particularly. It's bloody hard writing from the perspective of a child, especially when covering high-impact, emotive issues! Okay, I'll admit - when I started reading this book, I initially released an internal groan. Not another Shakesepeare interpretation, I thought! What more can be said about Hamlet - the play that's been covered literally hundreds of times in previous works? F. Scott Fitzgerald said when he wrote he felt like he was holding his breath and swimming under water. With The Dead Fathers Club it was certainly written at quite a breathless, intense level, and came from a place I can’t easily locate. But once I had the voice, it was there and I was able to see everything through Philip’s eyes.

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. Q. There are no exact correspondences to Hamlet in The Dead Fathers Club. Philip has lost his father, and his uncle Alan has usurped his mother’s affections and the proprietorship of the ‘Castle’. However, without giving away the end of the novel, is it safe to say that Philip breaks free of Shakespeare’s narrative, and if so, why is this significant for you? Most entertaining are Philip’s chums, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern equivalents, Ross and Gary. Philip’s exchanges with these interchangeable comic twins are brilliant pitched in adolescent speak . . . [Haig] is also interested in how language breaks down, and frequently his verbal dexterity is at once disorientating and enlightening . . . In his boyishness, Philip shows an all too apparent weakness that very effectively, and often poignantly, exposes the absurdity of revenge. As well as the influence of Roald Dahl in his narrator, Haig’s novel echoes Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and like that work, this should hold similar appeal for adults and older children alike. . . There is a great deal to admire in his zippy writing, and as for the themes he explores so well, they’re as old as time itself. Johanna Thomas-Carr, City A.M So here's what I LOVED about this book. We all know that Hamlet was the king of indecision, and that he may or may not have been mad. However, his state of mind is always a mystery, due to the perspective of the play. (The soliloquies, in my opinion, only reveal so much).

Reader Reviews

Haig is spectacular with making you feel through his words. There are a lot of life quotes based in here, which leave you to ponder. It truly is fascinating. Tempering the tragedy with a deftly comic touch, Haig combines a compelling mixture of psychological insight and pre-adolescent angst in this strikingly original tale. The Big Issue

A. No. It wasn’t my original intention. I experimented with various different ways of expressing Philip’s state of mind but this one somehow worked best. And thankfully, my editor didn’t have a problem with it. Moreover, Philip is so adamant on killing his uncle Alan, he looks for all the negatives from him - whilst hurting others in the process. And when he finally has remorse and regret, it is too late. Phillip is encouraged by his deceased father to steal a mini-bus to supposedly prevent Alan from breaking into the pub and is shown several chemicals that could potentially kill his father's murderer. During this time Phillip is assigned to therapy sessions and begins a relationship with Leah, the daughter of a business partner in the garage Alan works at, which Brian does not approve of. Philip takes a surprising interest in Roman history, especially in the reign of Nero. How does this interest relate to Philip’s overall mental state, and how is it woven into the novel’s plot?

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I found this book in the kids section of the library. It is about a 11 year old boy, so it stands to reason. Here are the things I found in the book: *SPOILERS* In The Dead Fathers Club, you have chosen to re-imagine not merely a classic but arguably the classic work of English literature. Where does one get the daring to wrestle with a giant, and how did you go about making Shakespeare’s story into your own? Ho trovato davvero fastidiosa anche la banalizzazione di problematiche e disagi come la salute me

This loose reworking of Hamlet is full of poignant insights and literary in-jokes, plus the author does a nice line in grim hilarity. Easy Living Arming himself with weapons from the school chemistry cupboard, Philip vows to carry out the ghost’s relentless demands for revenge. But can the words of a ghost be trusted anymore than the lies of the living?’The hilarious tale is full of poignant insights into the strange workings of the world seen through the eyes of a child. Hull Daily Mail A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume. Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings ( A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants. I really really wanted to like this book. It had so many brilliant things going for it: a great voice, hilarious scenes, interesting premise, great characters, great descriptions, witty turns of phrase and all that jazz.