The Dead Father

Rating:
Summary: Caustic Brilliance
Review: I hate experimental fiction. Don DeLillo and his ilk, they bore me; it's just a lot of fake cleverness. But this book, while you can't deny the avantness of its garde, is...well...the first page brings up the question of just what exactly is lodged in the supine, mile-tall Dead Father's teeth. "Mackerel salad. At least we think it is mackerel salad. In the sagas, it is mackerel salad." Wildly fantastic, caustically funny ( the sex scenes will make you fall out of your chair), prosodically innovative ( I believe Barthelme has invented his own verb tense) and yet, easy to follow and, really, with an old-fashioned plot. It is a parable about the overthrow of old tyrannies -- and in spite of all the literary smartaleckitude it is tender and genuinely moving. You have never read anybody like Barthelme, and if you can find this book anywhere (out of PRINT! how DARE they? ) treasure it. Nothing like it has ever been written or will be again. Sixty-eight stars (if they would allow it.)

Rating:
Summary: His best novel
Review: In relation to SNOW WHITE, this work contains more substance and is a greater literary effort than its predecessor. At the open we have 22 people, some Biblical while some are clearly not even representative, literally dragging God, not quite dead, through various roads, countryside, and towns in order to reach the plot in which He will be buried. Of course, it does not matter is He is dead when they reach their destination. The novel is one of Barthelme's more powerful tales and, as always, full of humor. One cannot read this without thinking that the Monty Python crew was somewhat influenced by this work, philosophically as well as from a creative standpoint. The one surprising footnote to this work is that it is a rather easy read, a linear narrative with definitive characters. Yet, as will all of Barthelme, is if never boring for even a page.

Rating:
Summary: underdeveloped, yet superfluous
Review: The Dead Father is a novel full of clever, astute observations on the nature of fatherhood. Here's the BUT: sadly, its potential is never fully realized. The characters are not fully developed, remaining shallow throughout the novel (the lecherous Dead Father is cowed into submission despite his considerable powers; Edmund is a drunk; Emma is interested in men to the exclusion of just about all else; Julie and Thomas and capable organizers, but paw at each other every five minutes.) The pages of dialogue between Emma and Julie (Barthelme doesn't provide surnames; perhaps that would detract from the 2-dimensional personalities that he created.) don't seem to have any purpose other than conveying the women's cattiness. Barthelme would have been better off ommiting the meaningless dialogue and expanding upon the context and the reasons for the trek. The Dead Father is NOT, in fact, God. Barthelme doesn't explain what he is (because clearly, he's not a human either). Nor does he explain what the people mean when they say that he is only partly dead, or why they want to burry him if he's not fully dead, or why they drag him along by a chain when he is capable of walking. Despite The Dead Father's weaknesses, it is one of the most interesting books I've read in some time. Although it is far too entertaining to be didactic, the underlying message is a condemnation of the growing problem of bad fathers. At one point in their journey, the group encounters the Wends. Wends procreate in such a way that they don't really understand the concept of fathers (they inseminate their own mothers and are therefore their own fathers). The Dead Father remarks that "those who are the fathers of themselves miss something. Fathers, to be precise." That same observation also applies to the growing epidemic of fatherless children in America. It is a pity that this book is no longer in print; perhaps we need it more than ever.